[Art]

Nice work Snowman!

Why did you do away with your earlier Athena character, the goddess looking avatar and go with this Minecraft looking one?
Was it due to Haptek not being supported any longer or perhaps used too many resources?
Didn't need to worry with various controls and settings with regard to "her" movement, expression, arms, hands, etc.?

Just curious.

Does the intelligence database allow for "on-the-fly" upgrades or Internet access as needed for correct responses?

Thanks and take care of that back!

[Snowman]

There were a few reasons that turned me off concerning Haptek.

#1 I didn't feel like I had enough control over the character. Although, I could do allot with Haptek, but, there were things I just couldn't do. Also, Haptek doesn't like Windows 10.

#2 I would have to pay Haptek for every program sold. Even if I ripped them off, I wouldn't feel right about it. I don't want to rely on other people's work.

#3 It gave me somewhat of a false sense of realism. A humanoid character causes you to think of the Ai as humanoid. That doesn't feel right to me.

#4 Every time I shown people my AI project they assumed I was making myself a girlfriend.
     (that got creepy fast)

#5 I want something original for this project. I want my project to stand out as something a bit different.
 
It wasn't an easy choice for me to make, getting away from haptek. The main reason was because I didn't know how to make anything 3D, especially as complex as a beautiful humanoid character.  However, I tried it anyway and so the Cube was born. I have total control over it. It's definitely very far away from the  uncanny valley. I don't have to pay anyone for it's used. And, really, there is a lot you can do with it in regards to multiple animations that can be ran directly from the main scripts. I suppose it will be my job to showcase the possibilities with lots of examples so that others can make even more elaborate and beautiful characters.

As for using the internet to get upgrades. I can send an email alert, or an alert directly to the UI if a new UI version is available. As for a central database, I don't really know yet. Allot of Athena's programming will be designed using a text-based game engine style. Of course, the exact details of how that will be implemented will be my next goal. There are lots of ways to do this. However, there will be a general local database to pull and store data to. So, I don't know. What do you think about some sort of online database for some basic questions and answers, or knowledge poling? Another friend of mine said the he'd prefer to be completely autonomous from the internet. I think it would be one less thing to worry about if I didn't have to maintain a central database.

[DemonRaven]

#4 Every time I shown people my AI project they assumed I was making myself a girlfriend.
     (that got creepy fast)

No what truly is creepy is there was a recent story about a guy who posted a ad asking people to have sex with his robot and he wanted to watch lol.

[Freddy]

He should have just made two robots 

Snowman, wonderful work you are doing there. I understand your reasons for going the route you did with the avatar - actually I think it's an elegant solution to the problem and doesn't have the limits of a human-like avatar. You could have it morphing into different shapes too, that would be cool.

Haptek really is not worth getting involved with any more it has to be said - well I have no interest in a product that is no longer developed, that's just life.

I like the idea of a base brain on the net. Most people are connected to the net now - it's become an essential, people get very upset when their service drops out these days - me included. Sometimes I think we forget that we got on fine before it appeared. But I can understand why some people might want a private bot not connected to the net - it's more portable too - but you can tap into so much on the net now that really it's the only option I would consider myself.

I have trouble finding a use for an assistant - I can do all my things on my PC myself and I don't mind doing it. I had a quick look at Cortana and thought meh then never looked again. If they could turn it into some kind of character I might have more interest. I'm very into visuals. Your cube is great for example. I could live with cubey sitting on my desktop and telling me things like I had a message from someone, or tell me people are online in Skype and stuff. Or reminding me to do things maybe if it did not nag ! You really have to be careful of not making Microsoft's mistake with the paper clip.

But you have mentioned games and that does interest me as I was developing my little world with the character Jess living in it. I figured I could add games into the mix there too. It's a fun thought, I just need more hours in the day.

[Art]

Good reasoning Snowman, I sort of thought as much.
The only other possibility would be using an Open Source program like Blender or MakeHuman or something like that, if your desire was to have / present a more human-like avatar.

There are a lot of good stand-alone resources for an "untethered" data hold, like the AIML set of data and various Wiki's.
The main problem with directly connecting to the Net is unfiltered data. You'd need some pretty crafty programming sieves to strain / catch improper words, foul or unappropriate words, etc.

I did like Freddy's idea about allowing the Cube to morph into other shapes, Sphere, Cylinder, Pyramid, Torus, etc.,
various accessories could also be employed if desired.

Lots of good ideas. Good luck with the progression!

[spydaz]

I think i like it , I'm not sure....

Yet anything that can be totally devoid of using third party stuff is always the right direction .... Perhaps even , building a wireframe head / body which can be skinned can bring back a new version of "athena" and be displayed .... Im not so bold to attempt animation as i was toying with the idea of inserting "unity" as an avatar engine/ 3d world ...

Im thinking .... Threads ....
 
To enable the multiplicity of actions .... Animating , communicating ... Etc .... Although processor intensive (but most people have multi core machines) so no problems only thing is the dispose method ... Closing the threads releasing the processes is ultra important.

For my engine ...
I created an interface / class ... Which acts as an agent architecture ...
It has sensors , actuators , actions..... Etc ... The agent handles inputs and outputs and actions inputs are sent to be executed by the brain then results are returned to the agent to be actuated to its outputs .... Sort of its connections to the outside world .... Kinda like a robot controller .....

The centralised brain is a good idea , and yet how irritating when Siri has no service .... A base brain located on the internet would be good , but i think that the userbrain should be local protecting the centralised brain from corrupt or intentional sabotage ....
If a user wants to have a potty mouth with Their bot then that would stay local .... Knowledge would stay central .... Some kinda cookie would enable the potty mouth user files to be uploaded to their own user area... Activated each time they visited.
Online learning should have its restrictions as mentioned .... Only plugins / updates would determine centralised learning and knowledge sharing (keeping their markov chains to themselves) allowing for good knowledge capture and potty mouth filtering ....

All just ideas for consideration ...

"Jolly good show"

I would also love to display a torus pattern too ... Transform some of the crop circles .... After watching a video about them .... [emoji16]

[Freddy]

You should give Unity a go Spydaz, it takes a while to get past the learning curve as does anything new - but it's a very well organised and flexible system. If you are prepared to spend money on things you have no will to build then it's ideal. Things like advanced shaders I mean, when you would rather be working on the AI or the avatar.

[spydaz]

I think unity is a very good platform .... Just learning it is a big mission

[Snowman]

Well, its about time for another Update video!! So here you go with all it's nonsense.

My next project will be to create a Script Editor, physically lay out the framework for the ai engine, and maybe play some minecraft; and all before the next update. Here goes nothing.

[Freddy]

Happy to report that it was indeed informative and interesting 

Sorry it took me a while to get around to watching, I've been doing some modelling (the 3D kind, I'm not attractive enough for the other) and working on what I am calling my Elfscript.

I know what you mean about the sculpting thing, I go through that process a lot too. Things can always be rearranged and moved around, I find it satisfying in the end too.

[Snowman]

I'm glad you're still working on your 3d stuff. I guess anything really worth doing usually takes a long time to get it done.

I took a little over a week off working on Athena. I got stuck on something small and so I felt like I needed to take a break, so I did.

All last week I've been making a musical instrument. It's called a Harpejji. I ran on to it randomly on Youtube. Over the last few months I've been learning about odd musical instruments and alternative instrument designs. I found something called a 'janko keyboard' which is a more efficiently designed piano. Well, one video led to another... so now I'm making a harpejji of my own. Here's a video of someone playing one.

 

I'm making good progress on it to. Right now I'm waiting for some parts from China. I've already started back programming Athena. I really did need the break.

Anyway, here's hoping everything is going good for you guys.

[Art]

That's a cool project, musically.

I recently came across the Seaboard which provides the player / user a different tactile touch along with a rather unique method of playing an already familiar keyboard layout.




And don't forget about this uniquely creepy sounding rounded keyboarded instrument called the Wheelharp.

[Freddy]

There are some really interesting instruments out there.

Do you strum the Harpejji in any way ? Couldn't see that they were.

This one came up in my YT feed.

[Snowman]

Yep Art, I seen that squishy piano and also that crying noise-box that sounds like a starving cat being drowned....
 

Seriously though, I did get some inspiration off that before I seen the harpejji design. There is also a similar instrument call the Chapman Stick that, I think, was the main inspiration for the Harpejji. This devise uses the tapping technique that some players use on an electric guitar. In a way, its like the hammers on a piano, only with frets. I think one of the earliest pianos was actually fretted.

Yes, Freddy, I've seen people strumming one, but only briefly to get a certain sound. Sometimes players will also do percussion on it too, lightly hitting it.

There are 24 strings on the largest designed harpejji. The lowest string is tuned to A-flat 0, which is one key below the lowest note on the piano. The top stop string is tuned to G-flat 4. The instrument has 15 frets. So the highest note you can hit is an A 5... So it basically covers 5 octaves.   

I'm building my own, mainly because the instrument is made by one company.. for about $5000.00.
Right now I've probably spent $300 or so in parts, the labor cost is passed off as me having fun
I might have invested about another $100 in development costs. I'll buy something and then realize I didn't need it.

I put some more time in it today, and probably tomorrow too. I'll stop at some point because I'm still waiting for that man from China to swim the world's oceans to bring me what I need. 

[Art]

I listened to a few songs by that same player and on a few different sized harpejji instruments.

I got to digging a bit and found the harpsichord was known to have been around in 1397. Wow! Then the clavichord and so on etc., I also watched a video of a woman playing the Bohemian Rhapsody from Queen, on a Harp! Yep...way cool actually. So many to choose so much time to master.

Keep us posted on your progress of either project (Athena or the harpejji).