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Digital 'Ghosts' To Guide Students On Campus

Posted by timothy on from the my-school-had-undead-staffers-ahead-of-time dept.

Hambone.dk writes "The students at Copenhagen's new IT University will soon be guided by invisible, but talkative digital agents, known as ghosts or Disembodied Location-specific Conversational Agents. The ghosts are to compete amongst themselves for privileges such as better vocabulary or the ability to clone themselves. Ignored ghosts can die out completely. This project is a lot more serious than it sounds at face value - several papers have been published already."

88 of 266 comments (clear)

  1. Nearly-Headless-Nick or Peeves ? by Space+cowboy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What's to stop these ghosts being maliciously "trained" to give the wrong answer... I remember a teacher at college (Mr Tittershill), who was routinely used in a joke on freshers (report to Mr Boobershill at the senior common room, NOW! ...)

    Is it only me who first thinks of "how to game the system" when presented with a new technology ? Perhaps I should have been a hacker :-)) [note to US authorities - this is a joke, and I have no intention of committing any crimes (cyber- or otherwise) when visiting the USA]

    Simon

    --
    Physicists get Hadrons!
    1. Re:Nearly-Headless-Nick or Peeves ? by ericspinder · · Score: 5, Interesting
      Is it only me who first thinks of "how to game the system" when presented with a new technology ?
      NO, thank god. Your question is serious and important. It's sad that in today's world people feel like they need disclaimers(*) all the time. Any homeowner or business manager should look at his property like a thief, and not be appolgitic when he suggests that to others.
      * - Note that I am not trying to offend anyone, but am just trying to get my point across.
      --
      The grass is only greener, if you don't take care of your own lawn.
    2. Re:Nearly-Headless-Nick or Peeves ? by Carthag · · Score: 5, Funny

      Oh, I can imagine a lot of things. Here at the department of Computer Science, University of Copenhagen there is a running prank called pyxling. It's basically making anagrams of the signs (which have those little lego-like letter bricks).

      I'd give examples, but they're in Danish, so no fun for the majority of you. Use your imagination :)

    3. Re:Nearly-Headless-Nick or Peeves ? by basil+montreal · · Score: 3, Funny

      The beauty about systems like this is that it would take a large number of people deliberately "gaming" the system the same way to screw it up. The ghosts evolve and any deviations along the way are just that. Who knows, maybe your hacking the ghosts would actually add something to the final result.

    4. Re:Nearly-Headless-Nick or Peeves ? by SatanicPuppy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Well, if it's a true learning system, nothing, of course. But if you've got competition, then either you'll need a large body of people to make sure the badly trained ghost stays fresh and popular, or it will get ignored and "die".

      For this sort of project I think you actually NEED people to try and abuse the system. If it's well designed, it'll help it get smarter. If it's poorly designed, then, at least, they'll be able to tell.

      Mind you, I think the whole think will fail for lack of computing power, though I think it sounds cool.

      --
      ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
    5. Re:Nearly-Headless-Nick or Peeves ? by op00to · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yes, it's only you. You are the only person clever enough to come up with any way to "game" the "system". Good show!

    6. Re:Nearly-Headless-Nick or Peeves ? by RedCard · · Score: 2, Funny

      [note to US authorities - this is a joke, and I have no intention of committing any crimes (cyber- or otherwise) when visiting the USA]

      Truly, the terrorists have won.

    7. Re:Nearly-Headless-Nick or Peeves ? by Ralph+Wiggam · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Rearranging the Soup of the Day sign at diners never gets old. There was a big bookstore across the street from my high school. They only built the sign 10 or 12 feet off the ground. I used to stand on top of my car and change the sign all the time. Having 2000 of your peers greeted in the morning with a sign that reads "Eat More Cock" was great.

      Hint for young pranksters: Steal a page from the movie Sneakers. Recreate the target sign using Scrabble tiles. Rearrange the letters in private. Standing in front of a sign trying to think of a clever phrase will get you busted.

      -B

    8. Re:Nearly-Headless-Nick or Peeves ? by skintigh2 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Did you just give a disclaimer about your hatred of disclaimers?

    9. Re:Nearly-Headless-Nick or Peeves ? by Dick+Faze · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Of course, this is a university campus, so by definition the "badly trained ghost" will be the MOST popular as people will be interacting with it two and three times to enjoy the joke, and they'll tell their friends about it as well. Meanwhile the "history of the lawn mowing patterns used in The Quad" ghost will 'self-terminate' a lonely, brief existence with but a wimper.

  2. Cool prank idea. by grub · · Score: 4, Funny


    Burn some toast at this university and make people think they're going mad!

    Victim: Did you hear that?
    Prankster: Hear what?
    Victim: Voices... ah forget it. Say... do you smell that?
    Prankster: Smell what?
    Victim: Burnt toa... uh forget it...

    --
    Trolling is a art,
    1. Re:Cool prank idea. by Txiasaeia · · Score: 2, Funny

      ... or Nearly Analog Nick ;)

      --
      Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
    2. Re:Cool prank idea. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      Smelling "burnt toast" is a symptom of some psychiatric diseases.

    3. Re:Cool prank idea. by squidfood · · Score: 2, Funny
      Victim: Did you hear that?

      "In the mean time, Kent, stop playing with yourself ."

    4. Re:Cool prank idea. by MadHobbit · · Score: 3, Informative
      The only source for this that I know of is that smelling burnt toast is one of the best known 'auras' preceding seizures. Many people with a seizure disorder / epilepsy experience some sort of warning sign beforehand - this is one of them.

      It's mentioned here.

  3. sheesh ka bobs will this help the blind? by CreamOfWheat · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ..helping steer blind/disabled students around campus?

    1. Re:sheesh ka bobs will this help the blind? by gears5665 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      the blind people I know are more able to get around campus than some of the sighted folk.

      While your heart is in the right place...you understimate and insult through your ignorance a very capable sector of our society.

    2. Re:sheesh ka bobs will this help the blind? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
      hile your heart is in the right place...you understimate and insult through your ignorance a very capable sector of our society.
      Obviously you've never found yourself drunk at a party where the only available designated driver is blind.
    3. Re:sheesh ka bobs will this help the blind? by ryanwright · · Score: 3, Insightful

      While your heart is in the right place...you understimate and insult through your ignorance a very capable sector of our society.

      I chose to respond rather than mod you down:

      Quit your P.C. whining. Nobody is insulted unless they choose to be insulted, in which case the problem lies with them. As you yourself said, his heart is in the right place, so your response is unnecessary.

      You really can have this one of two ways:

      1. You can accept that people are ignorant about a disability and choose to appreciate their help, however unnecessary it may be.

      2. You can choose to be insulted and become a P.C. weenie, bitching and moaning and berating people who have nothing but good intentions. End result, that person will never again offer their assistance to a person with a disability because you've made them feel ashamed of themselves for doing the right thing.

      I suggest number one. It makes you look like less of an ass and doesn't discourage people. Maybe the blind people you know are very capable who don't want any help, but there are others who aren't as capable and actually appreciate the assistance. Don't leave them out in the cold by turning away those who would seek to help them through your P.C. nonsense.

      --
      -Ryan, with the unoriginal sig
    4. Re:sheesh ka bobs will this help the blind? by Some+Dumbass... · · Score: 2, Insightful

      2. You can choose to be insulted and become a P.C. weenie, bitching and moaning and berating people who have nothing but good intentions.

      Based on your post, it seems that the same can be said of Un-P.C. weenies. Do you really think that the grandparent post had such bad intentions?

      You know, this whole concept of "P.C." has really run its course. All we have now are two sides. Both of them complain that the other side is putting them down for no reason, both insist on the right to speak their mind, and both probably have good intentions most of the time.

      What's the f*#$ing difference between them anymore?

      I mean it. Consider that any of these insults could apply to either side equally well:

      Nobody is insulted unless they choose to be insulted, in which case the problem lies with them.

      This applies just as well to both gears5665 and ryanwrights' posts

      As you yourself said, his heart is in the right place, so your response is unnecessary.

      Likewise.

      I already commented about that "#2" from the parent post. Here's my favorite part:

      Maybe the blind people you know are very capable who don't want any help, but there are others who aren't as capable and actually appreciate the assistance.

      The irony is that the granndparent post said exactly the same thing. The grandparent post replied to a post which claimed that blind and disabled people might need help by stating that the some blind people (the ones "he knows") wouldn't. Both of you are saying that some blind people might need help, but that many don't. What bothered the grandparent post was the implication that _all_ blind and/or disabled people needed help.

      The grandparent poster may have read too much into the great-grandparent post. Maybe. But that's about it.

  4. Delca by mknewman · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Very impressive text to speech technology, but I didn't see much in the way of a demo on the site given.

    1. Re:Delca by Carthag · · Score: 4, Informative

      You can click the round bubbly icons to get text read to you. It sounds like it's prerecorded, though, as the text read and the text displayed is subtly different (there's a split infinitive in the sound that's fixed in the text, for example).

    2. Re:Delca by ryanwright · · Score: 2, Interesting

      >> Very impressive text to speech technology

      Agreed; I'm very interested to know how I can get my hands on the same TTS engine & voices they're using. Also would love to know how they interfaced voice recognition & response with ALICE. It would be wonderful to wake up in the morning and ask basic questions, such as "What is the weather like today?", and get an appropriate response regardless of how the question was formed ("how's the weather", "get me the weather report", etc). Would be even more fun to let friends converse with the "A.I.".

      --
      -Ryan, with the unoriginal sig
  5. Well Shit on Me by illuminata · · Score: 5, Funny

    College kids can breathe easily. For once, it's not the acid talking.

    --


    Until Slashdot fixes the funny modifier, use insightful or interesting. The poster knows your intentions.
    1. Re:Well Shit on Me by og_sh0x · · Score: 2, Funny

      He-lo the-arr Ted. Wou-ld you lah-ik to come-with mee to my roo-amm and have-a goo-ahd tiy-am?

      If such a program would have to learn how to survive, that might be one way. But it would be a little bit like dating a vacuum cleaner with throat cancer.

  6. hear voices by millahtime · · Score: 5, Funny

    Is this a shrinks delight??? A campus full of people hearing voices.

    --
    Evolution or ID?
  7. Wasn't this done sort of already by nberardi · · Score: 5, Informative

    Wasn't this sort of already done with the GotDotNet Terrarium Project, it's not as intelligent but it sounds like the same idea.

  8. SHODAN by plams · · Score: 5, Funny

    When that female voice started speaking in that flash thing I almost thought it would say, "Look at you Hacker... Pathetic creature of meat and bone.."

    1. Re:SHODAN by plams · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Heh. But seriously, they have a lot in common - listen to these samples of background ambience to accompany the voice. Here's a bunch of nerds that actually understands how ambient sound can change the atmosphere completely.

      For instance, in System Shock - the first time you hear SHODAN speak, she's just giving you a standard greeting ("Welcome back to Citadel Station.."). But all the time there's this evil drone in the background that starts low but keeps intensifying. SHODAN makes no threats, nor states anything evil - but that ambience, the drone, tells you that something's definitely wrong, and you should be very affraid:)

    2. Re:SHODAN by Rallion · · Score: 2, Funny

      I actually have aSystem Shock 2 sound scheme going on my machine, I replace pretty much all the sounds for any app. Start-up? "I am Shodan." Shutdown? "That...h-h-h-h-hacker destroyed my primary data loop." Girlfriend signs on AIM? Xerxes says "Hostile AI detected."

      The best thing about it is that it scares the shit out of everybody.

      Downside is that it still scares the shit out of me, too.

    3. Re:SHODAN by bloodgroove · · Score: 2, Interesting

      This bring up the idea of an audible body language for these ghosts. Effectively background music or noise but once you got used to it you could use it to determine the ghost's mood, intentions, playfulness, etc. Whether or not the ghost actually has any feelings is moot as long as the interaction with the ghost can replicate more real human interactions. Ghosts might then have a auditory presense when they're around so that we can know that it's there instead of being surprised with a disembodied voice. An interesting question is would the ghost be allowed to change it's own "body language" or is it a fixed entity like our own presence in a room. And if it can change it's "body language" like we can, is it programmed that way from the get go, or does it have to learn it's own habits and change them accordingly. This could be an effective way to teach a ghost how to lie. The real question in all of this I guess would be what does PMS sound like?

  9. The ramifications are endless by Loco3KGT · · Score: 5, Funny

    Could you imagine this in your house? Your wife could be out grocery shopping but you'd still hear her voice yelling "DID YOU PUT THE LID DOWN?" upon leaving the bathroom.

    --
    Blessed be he who reads this post, Cursed be he who tells my boss.
    1. Re:The ramifications are endless by petabyte · · Score: 5, Funny

      "HARCOURT FENTON MUDD!!, WHAT DID I tell you ..."

      "Stella nooooooooo ....."

      Hopefully these processes aren't threaded.

  10. thats not news by theMerovingian · · Score: 3, Funny


    invisible, but talkative digital agents

    I've been dating her for years!

    --
    "If you think you have things under control, you're not going fast enough." --Mario Andretti
  11. Great. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Get ready for the Marketing Ghosts assaulting you on every street corner...

    I can barely wait...

    1. Re:Great. by lionchild · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Get ready for the Marketing Ghosts assaulting you on every street corner... There's an upside to that: If you ignore them enough, they die off...unlike current marketing firms.

      --
      Awk! Pieces of eight. Pieces of eight. Pieces of seven... ERROR: General Protection Fault. [Paroty Error.]
    2. Re:Great. by |/|/||| · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Ah, but only if everyone ignores them. Telemarketers would go away if everyone ignored them, but unfortunately that is not the case.

      I find myself becoming less and less tolerant of advertising, as it becomes more and more prevalent. I wonder if anyone else feels this way. The only radio stations that I can stay on for more than a couple of minutes are the listener funded ones (like KEXP), and there's no way I can stand to watch TV anymore. I can tolerate banner ads as long as they're not animated, but anything on the web that delays me from the actual content gets closed and forgotten.

      I hope I'm not the only one who would be extremely pissed to have audio advertisements bombarding me on the street corner. If they can't be avoided, then they will have to be destroyed; and society should not consider those who do so to be vandals.

      Before you draw a parallel between these 'audio ads' and billboards (which also cannot be avoided) note that human vision is much more focused and selective than hearing - I can't just point my ears in a different direction.

      --
      [javac] 100 errors
  12. Who ya gonna call? by Gulik · · Score: 5, Funny

    And, of course, to augment meager stipends, PhD students can get into the business of helping freshmen figure out how to get the ghosts to leave them the Hell alone:

    ``Sir, what you had there is what we refer to as a Disembodied Location-specific Conversational Agent, or a Class 5 Full-roaming AI. Really nasty one, too.''

    1. Re:Who ya gonna call? by AGMW · · Score: 3, Funny
      Great, now I got that Ray Parker song stuck in my head, no thanks to your post.

      HA! I ain't afraid of no post!

      --
      Eclectic beats from Leeds, UK
      handmadehands.co.uk
  13. Meddling punks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    I would have got away with my tenure position and crappy directions it if it wasn't for those meddling kids.

  14. Hint. by hookedup · · Score: 4, Funny

    Turn down your speakers before clicking the second link.

    This is slashdot, so I'm assuming you've already come this far down the page and have yet to click the link.

  15. Re:obligatory liberal slant by OECD · · Score: 4, Funny

    will the ghosts specifically tell perspective women students that they are victims of a male dominated society?

    Nah, they got teachers for that. The ghosts will tell them that those jeans really do make them look fat.

    --
    One man's -1 Flamebait is another man's +5 Funny.
  16. Hmm... by Mindcry · · Score: 2, Funny

    and if the Disembodied Location-specific Conversational Agents disembody students, do they get free lunch?

    anyways, sounds kinda cool... though i bet it'd be a bit hard to get used to... unless you already hear voices, in which case...

  17. I can't wait till some college pranksters hack it by Junior+J.+Junior+III · · Score: 4, Funny

    Just like in Real Genius...

    Prankster: "This is God talking. I want you to... blah blah blah... Oh, and by the way: stop masturbating."

    Student: It is God...

    --
    You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
  18. feelings??? right. by blue_adept · · Score: 5, Insightful

    from the website project pages...

    "the ghosts are not only able to talk and think like human beings they are also emotional and sensitive spirits. the ghosts have feelings and highly complex sets of behaviors"

    this is very misleading. natural language processing and complex behaviour is one thing, but to claim that these programs have "Feelings" is just ridiculous.

    --

    "Is this just useless, or is it expensive as well?"
    1. Re:feelings??? right. by thelasttemptation · · Score: 5, Insightful

      To be honest, the same can be said about you...

      natural language processing and complex behaviour is one thing, but to claim that these meat puppets have "Feelings" is just ridiculous.

    2. Re:feelings??? right. by blue_adept · · Score: 3, Funny

      Oh, I'm pretty sure *I* have feelings, seeing as you just hurt them.

      --

      "Is this just useless, or is it expensive as well?"
    3. Re:feelings??? right. by Carthag · · Score: 5, Funny

      That's just a temporary chemical imbalance. It'll pass. :)

    4. Re:feelings??? right. by dave420 · · Score: 3, Interesting
      If something's programmed/conditioned to respond to certain stimulii, and those stimulii reflect something people recognise as emotional triggers, technically it can "feel emotions". After all, that's just what we do.

      Sure, it's weird to say that, but it's technically true :)

  19. Holly! holly! holly! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Sorry dave

  20. No one steps on a church in my town.... by AtariAmarok · · Score: 4, Funny

    They'll pull the plug on this project as soon as a giant marshmallow stomps the campus chapel.

    "I find her interesting because
    she's my client and she sleeps above her covers- FOUR FEET above her covers"

    --
    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
  21. Polytechnic NY by Smidge204 · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Makes for happy Moose"

    Sorry, but this reminds me of the hauntings of my college... though I've never heard of any students being helped by them...

    I think the problem here is they are not passive enough, at least that I can tell. The last thing anybody wants is an emotional, talking version of Clippy talking to you as you're walkingdown the hallway...

    "Hi! You look like you're lost! Do you want directions?"

    "No. Go away."

    "I'm sorry, I don't know where that is."

    Man, Douglas Adams must be spinning in his grave...
    =Smidge=

  22. Ahh, something like Harry Potter's marauders map by bigattichouse · · Score: 4, Funny

    "I solemnly swear I am up to no good" would be the verbal queue to summon the ghosts that tell you where you can score beer (if underage), change security codes, hook up with other evil doers, and basically build a nice treatment for a little summer hacker movie.

    --
    meh
  23. What did you catch today, Egon? by AtariAmarok · · Score: 4, Funny

    "What did we catch today, Egon?"

    "Well, let's check the traps: 3 repeating phantasms, 18 roaming terminal vapors, and 6 semitranslucent sessile spectres. Oh. I went back to Columbia University and picked up some of those new invisible, but talkative digital agents"

    --
    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
  24. M$ Word Paperclip anyone? by DarkkOne · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I mean, it doesn't have an AI (Microsoft instead opting to go with their proprietary Artificial Stupidity) but doesn't it somewhat seem like a prototype for this idea. I mean, an artificial helper that guides you around software isn't too different from one that guides you around a physical location. But in all seriousness, instead of location specific ones, wouldn't you rather have a personal ghost? You decide it's appearance on your PDA/Wearable Computer/Whatever, you adjust its personality via programming or learning capabilities. You get to the campus, and it wirelessly logs onto a local server, gets a layout, and comparing your schedule develops a path to where you need to be, and on demand (or wim, if so programmed) gives you directions? Sure, location specific ones are a neat idea, but personal ones seem like they'd be alot more useful.

    1. Re:M$ Word Paperclip anyone? by System.out.println() · · Score: 4, Funny

      Microsoft instead opting to go with their proprietary Artificial Stupidity

      That's hardly proprietary. I mean, look at slashdot.

      --
      I've got more mod points and GMail invi
    2. Re:M$ Word Paperclip anyone? by dave420 · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Location-specific ghosts are just that - they belong to the location. To the instutution they "haunt", it's more important for those ghosts to be theirs. Would you create a system where any script-kiddie can walk in and upload their own code via wifi? exactly. Especially seeing as these ghosts sound like future replacement for staff (with all the responsibilities/abilities that implies). Imagine going into a shop with your own personal check-out boy/girl, and have them run behind the counter to serve you. Not exactly a nice idea for the shop owner - strangers in the till, no guarantees they're not ripping you off. That's exactly what having a personal ghost interacting with a building/institution is like. Having ghosts that were built for a specific area also means they can be programmed to suit that area better (ie they know the fire alarm test is in 2 minutes and warns you not to spill your coffee, or that the west stairway is less crowded in the afternoon). It must be very difficult to convey flow through buildings in an XML file, adequately enough to be of use.

      And, dude - You don't see microsoft going on about "linsux", do you :-P

  25. STFU switch? by AndroidCat · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Hi, I see that you're trying to locate a dealer on campus!"

    --
    One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
  26. The Word Paperclip by Geancanach · · Score: 5, Interesting
    From the paper:

    1. Ghosts are mostly invisible or only vaguely visually manifested 2. Ghosts are often bound to a specific location which often has a very special relation to the ghost 3. Ghost owe their twilight status to some unfinished business and they are therefore active and striving 4. Ghosts only appear when called upon or if they feel an urge to manifest themselves

    These ghosts sound a lot like the microsoft word paperclip. Is that damn thing going to start talking now?

    1. Re:The Word Paperclip by AndroidCat · · Score: 2, Informative
      Is that damn thing going to start talking now?

      Not without a clever hack. Clippy is a Microsoft Agent, and could easily use any text-to-speech engine that works with SAPI4, except for two things: (1) the Clippy .acs is specifically flagged not talk, so you can't make it talk even in your own app, (2) Office sets text-only output even if you reg-hack it to use a talking agent like Merlin or Genie.

      --
      One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
  27. This reminds me of a web site..... by orthogonal · · Score: 2, Funny
    The ghosts are to compete amongst themselves for privileges...

    Hell, Slashdot is already full of "ghosts" competing for mod points.

    ...such as better vocabulary or the ability to clone themselves.

    Of course, it would be rediculus to expect the Slashdot "ghosts" to loose their limited vocabularies.

    And none of us really expect to ever have the ability, let alone the opportunity, to reproduce.

    --
    Opinions on the Twiddler2 hand-held keyboard?
  28. I'm sorry. by Soko · · Score: 4, Funny

    I just can't accept this at all.

    I mean, a Clippy for college campuses, disembodied from MS Office?

    It looks like you're drunk and lost. Would you:

    - like directions back to the dorm
    - like directions to the nearest park bench
    - like directions to the nearest sorority party
    - like another beer
    or
    - like directions to Cowboy Neal's house?

    Say "More" for more options, "OK" to choose one or "Go Away" and I'll leave you alone. Until I see you peeing in a bush, when I get to be helpful again!

    Sorry, Fuck Off isn't one of the options. Here they are again.

    It looks like you're drunk and lost...

    Soko

    --
    "Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm." - Anonymous
    1. Re:I'm sorry. by AndroidCat · · Score: 5, Funny
      If it detects that you're drunk, it'll probably switch to Zork just to mess with you:

      Welcome to Dungeon.
      This version created 30-AUG-90.
      You are in an open field west of a big white house with a boarded front door.
      There is a small mailbox here...

      --
      One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
  29. Agents by electric_penguin · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'm all for it. As long as he looks and sounds like Orlando Jones.

  30. To steal a joke from South Park... by Tax+Boy · · Score: 3, Funny

    Students getting advice from ghosts in Denmark?

    Shakespeare already did it.

  31. Re:First, the human frogger... by AndroidCat · · Score: 2, Funny

    More like Gauntlet: "The freshman is about to flunk!"

    --
    One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
  32. wikipedia by an_mo · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ... obviously you have never seen the wikipedia. To put it in somebody elses' words, "with many eyes, all bugs are shallow". This principle does not apply to software only.

  33. ghosts play pranks too by lockholm · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Ghosts use every means possible to get the users attention and affection but their modus operandi varies in accordance with the preferred segment of users they try to reach. Some rely mostly on entertainment e.g. by becoming popular as respected opponents in the local computer game, other use the assistive interaction as their preferred metier. Some perform practical jokes, some are 'jack-ass'ing', others rely on more innocent ways of entertainment (like the singing sisters street performing at second floor) while a few are responsible polite and earn their ITU's[positive feedback] from maximizing the standard of their services.

    I bet the freshmen are easy targets...

  34. PR nightmare by Ssbe · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This technology mixing AI and artificial voices seems really cool, but comments like

    "Ghost are almost living beings like you and I"

    need to go if they want the public behind it. No matter how complex the AI is or how real the voices seem, they aren't the same as humans. And while they are at it change the name of the AI beings. The word ghost already has a very defined meaning ... and it's not a good one. Remember what happened with the American car "nova" or "no go" in Spanish? This really could turn into a PR nightmare for these guys. Which would stink because the technology definitely looks interesting.

    1. Re:PR nightmare by stratjakt · · Score: 3, Informative

      Remember what happened with the American car "nova" or "no go" in Spanish?

      A myth, an urban legend.

      To summarize the snopes entry..

      First of all, you wouldn't say "no va" in spanish, you'd say "no machina", "no functiona" or "no trabaja" (doesnt work). "Don't go" is slang from ignorant english folks, it doesn't translate. Apologies for my bad spanish.

      Secondly, it's like saying an english speaker wouldn't buy a dinette set under the brand name "Notable" because it says "no table". The legend insinuates that the spanish are somehow stupider than we are. (Like the myth of africans being shocked to see baby food on store shelves because they cant read and just look at the pictures and assume thats what's in the jar)

      Thirdly, the punchline of the story is that Chevy changed the name to "Caribe" and sales took off. But, Volkswagon already sold a "Caribe" in Mexico - it was the Golf here. The name "Nova" was never changed in mexico.

      Lastly, there's a brand of gasoline in Mexico called "Nova". It sells fine.

      Basically it's just a subtly racist urban legend. "Dem wetbacks is so stupid they tink Nova means No Go!"

      --
      I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
  35. Oblig Simpsons by da3dAlus · · Score: 2, Funny

    From the Simpsons Smile-time Variety Hour spinoff:
    Marge: "Homer, why are you hiding?"
    Homer: "You said today we were having a special g-g-ghost today!"
    Marge: "No, I said we were having a special GUEST. Mr. Tim Conway!"
    Homer: "What's a Tim Conway?"
    Tim Conway: "Oh, about a hundred-seventy pounds."

    --

    Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.
  36. Wow by ElGnomo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This has got to be one of the coolest things I've seen on slashdot. Not only is text to speech interfaced with most of the services of a fully wifi college ( the elevators, printers, music are accesible by ghosts ), but they've given each ghost a unique personality and history to boost! almost makes me want to learn danish and transfer to Copenhagen!

  37. Too much by mod_critical · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This seems to me to be going quite a bit overboard...

    If the purpose is to provide a useful resource to the people who will engage these ghosts, then I see far to much work going into the AI. A helpful computer contains what you want to know and provides an effecient interface for extracting the information.

    Not that this project is not of great interest to me from a research standpoint, but perhaps the most useful faceless computer interface wouldn't be one that is trying to gain popularity and lock the morons in the closet.

  38. Competing agents... by CarrionBird · · Score: 4, Interesting
    It will be very interesting to see how these "ghosts" compete with each other for resources, as the plan suggests.

    Will they play nice, or do what ever it takes, to survive?

    How do you code competitveness? (or spell it for that matter)
    --
    Free Mac Mini Yeah, it's
  39. Re:First, the human frogger... by Discoflamingo13 · · Score: 3, Funny

    When I was in college, we used to say Gauntlet-esque phrases all the time -

    Use caffeine to stay awake later! (Walking past vending machines)
    Cafeteria food takes 50 health! (Taco Pizza . . . again)
    White freshman is about to die! (Kegger)
  40. Help me out here... Eliza with a fancy flash site? by Featureless · · Score: 4, Interesting

    They have a good web designer and have clearly purchased the top of the line speech synthesizer (which has recorded canned audio clips narrating a few snippets of text for them)... they claim "all the voices you encounter on this site are generated by computers." Congratulations. Kraftwerk has been doing this trick since the 80's. Musical stings to provide ambience for different "ghost activities..." Little PHPbb posts about each ghost's personality that sounds like something cut from Starship Titanic's promotional materials...

    The papers on their site that I've skimmed were extremely "light." They were at least suggestive of interesting ideas (albeit ones that have a nothing to do with AI and everything to do with human-computer interaction... "ambience," new ideas for interfaces, which seem promising or at least interesting). Their "main paper" is a 404.

    So they're not exactly leading with the great breakthrough that makes their ghosts possible. Can anyone more familiar with the project comment? It looks like a lot of fancy dressing on the same kind of waste-of-time vanilla AI project (yet-another-unambitious-stab-at-natural-language- processing) that's been going on in countless CS departments around the world for decades...

    What's the real meat of this project? Have they really accomplished anything of interest from an AI or user interface perspective? Or is their main accomplishment an unusually skillful PR coup for themselves?

    --

    Want to Know How to Cheat the GPL? Read On!
  41. It would be really fun... by wolenczak · · Score: 5, Funny

    Being a comp sci. student at a large university, it would be really interesting to try gaming the system and have it make jokes or funny things to the new students. And believe me, all that bunch of technogeeks will have serious fun with the ghosts.

    "hi, i'm are your ghost guardian and will assist you while you get familiar with the campus. Cheerleader's Stripshow at 7pm in womens changing room, just make sure to reserve your seat in advance at the administration. Having problems with your teachers? Dr. Berger just loves the patriots (as well as entrance tickets), Mrs. Allison favours basketball players, and Dr. Palmer is into... ehemmm.. umm... well, you'll find"

  42. HK-47 by MattRog · · Score: 3, Funny

    I would rather HK-47 would chat it up:
    "Hello meatbag... err.. master."

    "It's just that... you just have all these squishy parts, master. Not to mention all the water - how the constant sloshing doesn't drive you mad I don't know."

    --

    Thanks,
    --
    Matt
  43. Re:hmm.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Saying that "The Net" is a good movie on Slashdot is like walking with an Al Queda T shirt through US Immigration. Are you sure you want to do this?

  44. Denmark, eh? by jpellino · · Score: 2, Funny

    So the first batch of ghosts will start with "Daddy" to be followed by Yorick, Ophelia, Polonius, Rosencrantz, Guilderstern, Gertrude, Laertes, Claudius and finally... Hamlet?

    Sorry, couldn't resist.

    --
    "Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
  45. Re:Big whoop by fingusernames · · Score: 2, Interesting

    My thought EXACTLY. There are so many young people out there who don't know what has been done before. I just came from their web site, and the demonstration "interaction" between Alice and the supposed user reminded me STRONGLY of using ELIZA years and years and years ago. They have spruced it up, sure, and added good text recognition and speech, but it still seems to be based fundamentally on an Infocom-like adventure game text recognition system underneath. The bit where, and I paraphrase, she says she "appreciates his polite style, but it is ambiguous: please use what, where, when" instantly clued me in to that. Hell, I remember writing an adventure game engine in BASIC back in the 80s that did a decent job of parsing human text and figuring out what was wanted. I would have hoped that in the intervening DECADES, natural language recognition would have progressed a hell of a lot more than what appears to be the case. I'm sure in fact that it has, actually. Maybe just elsewhere.

    I was at an ACM presentation not long ago, and some PhD was talking about this cool project he had done. Likewise, it looked functionally VERY similar to how one interacted with those old text Infocom games. Lots of the young kids ooh'ed and ahh'ed over it. I mentioned this similarity afterwards, and he actually got a bit irritated. I suppose people are supposed to have forgotten about that, so it can be re-invented in the 21st century.

    Larry

  46. museum guides by peter303 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Recent museum guides like at the Dallas Noeller Sculpture Museum use mp3 players with RFID readers. The mp3 gives random access sound loops, so you aren't tied to a sequential audio tape. The RFID tags on art works give you the location index.

  47. Mona Lisa Overdrive by mattnl · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This reminds me of the "guide" that the little girl has in William Gibson's "Mona Lisa Overdrive" .. it was a character that accompanied her everywhere to help her find her way around London.. If they could package these ghosts in portable devices that people could carry it would be essentially the same thing.

    Once again sci-fi predects the future....

  48. Re:Help me out here... Eliza with a fancy flash si by oblivionboy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I really find this attitude disappointing, especially since its here on Slashdot. Although everything you say is technically correct, I'm not sure I understand what is the point of dissing an experimental project -- because it is experimental.

    This is not a commercial product. Clippy is. And here is the big difference.

    An experimental project like this is all about moving to the next step. The step where it becomes a reality. If you're dissing this project now, because a CS faculty is conducting a research project (which CS Faculties are supposed to do), which is actually interesting, and has potentially really great possibilities, then I'd hate to see how you expect progress to be made in computers at all.

    Oh maybe you're just upset that it's not a Linux project.

    Either way, I think this is really cool, and I love the evolutionairy aspect of it.

    This is one project, I'll be keeping track of.

  49. Re:Help me out here... Eliza with a fancy flash si by fingusernames · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Right on. As I just wrote in a previous reply, the underlying technology involved in the interaction appears to be a mix of ELIZA and an Infocom-like adventure game text recognition engine using keywords, like what we wrote as kids in BASIC on our home computers back in the 80s. All the glitz on top, and the tie-in to other systems, appear to be the only real meat of the system. That is, of course, interesting. But the technology is certainly nothing terribly impressive, unless they've hidden the good stuff.

    Larry

  50. Ambient Intelligence Artificial Intelligence by EarnestChameleon · · Score: 2, Interesting
    I absolutely agree.

    I was able to get to the main paper (at least, I think it was the right one), but the focus seems to be on UI and the disembodiment thereof, not on any of the actual trivialities of interpretation and response. Next to last page has a sentence on the challenges of giving verbal commands to such a system (10 words a minute--not really a conversation).

    And to slip in "personalities" and the genetic algorithm business just muddies the waters.

    There's absolutely nothing in here about AI. I do think the UI stuff--the locality of personalities is interesting, so that might be somewhat original...

    the rest is just so much fluff.

    --

    --Have a good night's sleep. Don't forget to brush your tooth.

  51. What voice synth? by Tesser · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Some of the pages have quite impressive voice inflections.

    Does anyone know what they might be using to generate the voices? I poked around for a while but never found anything on what actually creates them.

  52. Re:museum guides by Bish.dk · · Score: 2, Informative

    Also in use in the exhibition of architecture by Daniel Liebeskind at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Extremely neat. You approach a screen showing a movie, and your headphones synchronize perfectly to the film. Works very well.