Chatbots.org Business News

An online game promoting the new movie Sherlock Holmes is offering players a new sort of gaming experience. The aim is to interview suspects - as Dr Watson or Holmes - to solve a robbery at the British Museum. Thanks to novel conversational “chatbots” embedded in the game, players can use natural language in their typed interrogations.

Other games have used natural language interactions before, says Rollo Carpenter, founder of Existor, the company behind the game, but these only use keywords to try to recognise what players are saying, he claims. “My script technology works by making predictions about what people will say,” he says. It then uses statistical analysis and fuzzy logic to try to find the best match for what was said against this vast number of predictions, before supplying the appropriate response.

Ever realized that not only humans are culturally bounded, but virtual agents as well? Practices that are completely accepted in some cultures would totally be rejected by other cultures. Even when they are part of so-called viral campaigns, which tend to be a little bit shocking. However, at Chatbots.org we believe learning starts with openness and sharing. So be prepared!

We’ve stumbled upon Anna and Adam, virtual agents (chatbots or virtual assistants if you prefer) of Polish company Inpost. Both Anna and Adam can be undressed if you know the codes! In fact, for non-Polish speaking people, it would come across as a code; for Polish natives it’s about answering questions about Inpost’s new service called paczkomat. They learn by interacting with Anna or Adam.

In most cultures, this kind of practice would be highly unusual for established brands like InPost. Note that Inpost is not a silly new web startup: They are the first company in Poland offering postal services throughout the country via its own units, represented in 200 cities of Poland via 800 Customer Service Points. Inpost is part of the Integer.pl group which is listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Anna was developed by a large virtual agent developer in Poland named Stanusch Technologies.

Wanna undress Anna or Adam yourself or checkout the video? Click below for the codes.

The future of chatbots is just starting to unfold. Numerous applications are developed and one of Chatbots.org objectives is to find and test new chatbots and their capabilities.
For example, I have tested every chatbot compatible to America Online’s Instant Messenger which are displayed at AIM’s online gallery.

AIDA is one of the latest intelligent driving virtual agents which aims to change the way we interact with our car and communicates with the driver through a small robot embedded in the dashboard. AIDA is a sociable robot, which reads the driver’s mood from facial coding and through emotion capturing and responds in a socially appropriate and informative way.

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WowWee was founded in 1988 as an independent research and development and manufacturing company, focused on cutting-edge technologies. The introduction of WowWee’s Robosapien™ robot in 2004 revolutionized the way we interact with entertainment robotic companions.

One of the most popular entertainment robots in the world, with global sales of more than 5 million units, the Robosapien robot was the first commercially-available biomorphic robot - a fusion of technology and personality.

Steve Di Paola of the Simon Fraser University demonstrated a virtual agent system to Chatbots.org.  This system interprets real time emotions in input such as voice, and shows facial expressions and gestures.

During the 9th International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents (related to IVA Gala), Steve showed us how his parameterized facial animation system operates. His goal is to develop a system that can handle any face type, behavior, and voice to be used in games, movies and virtual agent worlds. Their current focus is on how emotions should be expressed.

In the first few minutes of the video, he demonstrated various types of faces. Steve grabbed his microphone and started talking. The avatar spoke similar to Steve and his (or her) lips were synchronized with his words. As soon as Steve raised or changed his voice, the avatar acted correspondingly, which was absolutely amazing. It widened its mouth when talking louder; it moved its eyebrow to emphasize what it was saying, and it responded to a drumming sound. Wow!

More explanation and images after break.

A new book gathering the most relevant research on Conversational Agents is going to be published by IGI next year.  We invite you to contribute to this project, and make your work visible to a large community of people.

Chapter proposals of 2-3 pages are expected on or before December 16, 2009 explaining the mission and concerns of your chapter to me, Diana Perez.

Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by January 16, 2010. Full chapters (8,000-10,000 words) are expected to be submitted by April 16, 2010. Once the book is published in November 2010, authors may get a complimentary copy of the e-book and a discount for additional printed copies of the book.

This comprehensive robot control interface relies solely on finger swipes, taps, and presses.

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Did you ever search for an overview of chatbot/virtual agent developers? Most likely, it was very hard to find. Well, we are happy to announce that from now on, life will be easier!

Chatbots.org has identified 49 professional chatbot developers all over the world. Most of them develop automated chat systems for virtual agents in call centers, however many developers are also developing chatbots for entertainment, learning, or companionship. Below, you will find a summary of our initial results in alphabetical order.

This page is a snapshot of our database listing Nov 18th 2009, our dynamic directory of professional chatbot/ virtual developers is maintained continuously and contains hyperlinks to developers’ websites.

AI4US Ltd. is from now on legal person for Chatbots.org. Its name AI4US is an acronym of ‘Artificial Intelligence for us’, its mission is to support the use of Artificial Intelligence in people’s daily lives.

It’s registered at the English Company House,  Company No. 7045061. All shares are owned by Lun Holding Ltd. (registered Company No. 7051180), which is fully owned by Dutch futurist Erwin Van Lun (that’s me ; - )).

Reasons to choose an Ltd. instead of the Dutch equivalent ‘BV’ (Besloten Vennootschap) is its international appeal, a legal worldwide known entity, and recognition as a legal person in all EU member states (directive 68/151/EEC of the Council of the European Communities).