[Carl2]

 I'd like to say thanks to everyone that inputed on this topic, I did a little more research and came across this  "Light is often created when energy hits an electron"  that would come under quantum mechanics, the electron can move up and down in the valence shell, when the electron moves down a level electrons release this energy as photons so if we look at the electron that produces the light we do have a mass.
This is something I can find acceptable, on a lighter note I'm not sure how they got that photon to take a rest.
Carl2

[Freddy]

Dear Diary,

Always quiet here at this time of year. People catching the last rays and the last days of the holidays.

I've not done much programming lately but have a lot of stuff on the back burner that I want to work on. My 3D avatar system for one and then there's the AIML interpreter to do. I seem to have a lot to get back to, but the muse has not struck so far even though the interest is still there. It's good to have a break sometimes though.

I'm trying to be a bit more healthy and go for walks and things and also cutting down on things like coffee too. This will be tested when I return to coding as they go hand in hand for me !

I see we have the Loebner Prize coming up again soon, so I will be ready I hope with our interview. There's a few interesting films about - I am thinking of buying Transcendence with Johnny Depp. On another note I also ordered The Dark Knight to see the late but awesome Heath Ledger in action again.

[Art]

@ Carl - I think maybe that photon simply got tired from all that constant moving around and needed a slight rest for a moment. Then they got him!!

@ Freddy - Actually recent findings indicate two - three cups of coffee are quite beneficial. 2 - 3 Pots of coffee however, are another thing!

[Freddy]

Yes, there's the rub. I drink a mug full virtually every hour. Moderation is the key here, I think I will drink more de-caffe than usual.

[Art]

Yep...even my doctor and cardiologist told me, anything in moderation!
(I can only assume they were both referring to food and drink)

Of course you are aware that they use Solvents in the making of DeCaffe coffee.

For me it's sort of akin to me using artificial sweeteners - which I do not and will not.

Real sugar is only about 10-12 calories / teaspoon so I don't worry about it. Sugar,
whether beet or cane is a natural product.

Artificial sweeteners while they claim often comes from natural plants, is still not sugar.

Kind of like those I can't believe they're not Butter items is because they're Not butter!! 

I love the scientific "findings" that come out every year or so. They change every year or so!

[squarebear]

I love the scientific "findings" that come out every year or so. They change every year or so!

I remember reading one year that eating meat every week helped you to live longer and this research was from something like the British Butcher's Association 

I don't believe any of these food findings. If you believed everything they said, you would end up eating nothing.

[Art]

Maybe but surely someone would have to come up with a "Diet-nothing" or a "Low-Calorie" nothing! 

[Carl2]

   Just looking around on the internet and came across Freddy's project for the talking head, it looks good but it seems it will take forever to get a fullbod to replace Hapteks.  I see there is a little interest in getting 3D (with glasses) which I've always been interested in, actually still remember seeing a movie over 50 years ago in glasses 3D, I really liked the effect.  Spending time on the house, car and other equipment but want to get back to working with Hal when things slow down. 
  As far as food and drink it seems what was once thought of as healthy is now bad for us as we learn more about this subject,  often we are subjected to buying products by a manufacturer interested in sales rather than our health.  I still remember when looking for a recipe for a cake it said to use a package of Duncan Hines cake mix.
Carl2

[Freddy]

Hi Carl welcome back, long time no see

Regarding the animated figures yep it's taken me a long time to get to where I am and I have loads more to do. It makes me appreciate how good Haptek was.

I've not seen anything with 3D glasses, not the new ones anyway. I've watched a few things with the blue & red lenses in the past.

One thing that has got my interest though is this Oculus Rift device : http://www.oculus.com/

Hopefully it will be affordable.

I'm trying to be more healthy lately. I stopped drinking so much coffee, but the withdrawal effects are potent. 

[Art]

I've mentioned elsewhere but I still have a red/blue pair but several (ok...many) years ago, I bought a new pair while at a computer show. They actually looked like regular black plastic frames but the lenses were clear, not red / blue. When worn and actuated, each lens had its own shutter that would sort of open and close at almost undetectable speeds and basically treated the viewer / user to an extremely smooth, fluid 3D effect so real, one felt as if the rotating 3D object was only a few feet right in front of them! One wanted to reach out and grasp it on more than one occasion.  Should be called Artificial 3D (since we live in a 3D world and are only trying to create it on computers and this VR).

[Carl2]

  This computers graphics card has 3 D capability, either the red, green or the shutter lens, I don't have either type of glasses.   Be nice to try this with the Haptek characters, which I've never gotten to.  I was lucky enough to find the body skin colors I used with the Haptek character so that should save a lot of time with the character.  I've also looked at the 3 D TV's being sold and there is also 3 D monitors.
Carl2

[Art]

Using the Open Source 3D character creation software, Makehuman, one can view the character in 3D.

Within the project, under View settings near the bottom left there is a selection entitled "Anaglyphs", which basically enhances the character / model to be viewed with 3D glasses to provide a pretty nice 3D image which can also be rotated or zoomed with the mouse as the user desires. I know it does work with the Red/Blue glasses but cannot attest to the shutter ones at this time.

[Freddy]

The trouble with the old fashioned blue/red glasses is that they screw up the colours of course. But the effect is still pretty cool.

I thought the 3D TVs would be a passing fad, but there seems to be a lot of interest in this kind of tech at the moment. I think Oculus Rift might be the watershed.

Then of course there are all the exoskeleton stuff that mimic your body movements (mainly hands atm) on the screen. It's a very interesting time for things like this.

[Art]

Yep, TV, no matter how they slice it is still 2D. Any "depth" in only an illusion much like the 3D glasses or "Heads Up" displays in autos, etc.
Holograms, while presenting the illusion of 3D, have no mass, no touchable parts.

We need to take those items from 2D and make real things from them in our 3D, real world.

[Freddy]

Still working on my AIML interpreter. Got stuck with it's condition structures for probably a week all told. I kept getting so far to only find it would not work with other things I need to do. I forget how many attempts I have made, but I finally got it working these past couple of days.

I'm using PHP so I ended up parsing the conditions from XML and transcribing them into pure PHP. Then I run that and get my output. This allows mixing of conditions (there are three variations, like IF..THEN statements) and nesting of conditions, so it can do all kinds of stuff. It's been the hardest part so far. I actually thought it would be one of the easier things before I started it !

I think I am just going to use it for myself for now. I don't plan to release it, I don't really have the time to support it and besides if people need a PHP AIML interpreter; Program O is already a fine choice.

So yep, AIML 1.0 is just about finished now, there's just a few things to finish it off. I suppose the next step is to start creating some AIML for Jess - I will probably start with the AIML set from Dr Wallace, then make my alterations.

I've got plans to introduce my own ideas now, like custom tags and stuff. I'm thinking of giving her a persistent memory and allow her to recognise a user  so that she remembers things about them, probably with a login. If I connect her to AiDreams she could remember things about members that talk to her. So she could be on the site, but also in her own little world that I am creating that can be visited. So many possibilities out there.