AI coach will train hopeless chatbots to pass the Turing test (text, not voice)
Given a snippet of dialogue between a chatbot and a human, the system predicts how convincingly human you or I would rate the chatbot’s response. This could be useful for building better virtual assistants.
Turing test
Would it be possible to cut humans out of this process altogether and just automate the Turing test instead? To find out, Lowe designed an AI system that automatically rates how human-like a piece of chatbot-generated dialogue sounds.
He chose 1000 short Twitter conversations, and got human volunteers to add a response. Then he got several chatbots of varying abilities to add their own response. Then he asked a different group of human volunteers to rate all the responses according to how human-like they were.
See the full story here: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2140809-ai-coach-will-train-hopeless-chatbots-to-pass-the-turing-test/
6 VR Experiences Nominated for 2017 Emmy Awards, Oculus Receives Multiple Nominations
There isn’t an official ‘VR’ section of the Emmys, rather the nominations have been spread between two categories: ‘Outstanding Original Interactive Program’ and ‘Outstanding Creative Achievment in Interactive Media Within a Scripted Program’.
Outstanding Creative Achievement In Interactive Media Within A Scripted Program
- The Mr. Robot Virtual Reality Experience USA Universal Cable Productions, Here Be Dragons, Esmail Corp. and
Anonymous Content (360 video on YouTube) - Stranger Things VR Experience – Netflix – Netflix and CBS Digital (360 video on YouTube)
- The Simpsons – Planet Of The Couches – play.google.com – Gracie Films in association with 20th Century Fox Television and Google Spotlight Stories (download here for Google Cardboard)
Outstanding Original Interactive Program
- Dear Angelica – Oculus Story Studios – Oculus (download here for Oculus Rift)
- Mission: ISS – Oculus – Magnopus / Oculus (download here for Oculus Rift)
- The People’s House – Inside The White House With Barack And Michelle Obama – Samsung / Oculus – Felix & Paul Studios
and Oculus (download here for Oculus Rift)
Disney is opening an immersive Star Wars Hotel where each guest gets a storyline
- All of the employees (or ‘cast members’, in Disney Park lingo) will be in costume and in character
- Each guest will get a storyline, which Disney specifically says will “touch every single minute of your day”
- It’s meant to take place on a space ship; ‘windows’ will only show space.
AT D23 EXPO 2017, DISNEY PARKS CHAIRMAN BOB CHAPEK ANNOUNCES NEW STAR WARS-THEMED HOTEL FOR WALT DISNEY WORLD RESORT -- During D23 Expo 2017, Walt Disney Parks & Resorts Chairman Bob Chapek announced plans to create the most experiential concept ever in an immersive Star Wars-themed hotel at Walt Disney World Resort. Dedicated entirely to the galaxy of Star Wars, it will be a one-of-a-kind experience where a luxury resort meets a multi-day adventure in a galaxy far, far away.
Sadly for us Californians, Disney has only mentioned this as coming to Florida’s Walt Disney World thus far.
See the full story here: https://techcrunch.com/2017/07/15/disney-is-opening-an-immersive-star-wars-hotel-where-each-guest-gets-a-storyline/?utm_medium=TCnewsletter
Why Would Anyone Want to Program and Control IoT in Virtual Reality?
Controlling physical objects that require electricity and an Internet connection through a novel digital realm like virtual reality seems as though it may be more hassle than it’s worth. To begin with, all the available changes you could make with a virtual reality interface would have to be programmed into the interface, so what would be the point of having a virtual reality interface to control Internet of Things (IoT) devices?
The point is to harness increasing computer power and programmable interconnectivity to make a virtual reality interface that will eliminate a user’s need to know how to program. Like the graphical user interface (GUI) created at Xerox PARC and implemented on the first Macintosh computer in 1984, this is an attempt to make a virtual world where your physical objects have a manipulatable twin.
Using Unity and HTC Vive, the team of researchers created Ivy, an immersive programming tool, to help users visualize, understand and program virtual data in a digital representation of a physical space. A simple program intertwines conditional sensor data (i.e., when a sensor reaches a certain measurement) to physically activate a connected object, like a lamp or a fan.
See the full story here: http://www.engineering.com/ARVR/ArticleID/15239/Why-Would-Anyone-Want-to-Program-and-Control-IoT-in-Virtual-Reality.aspx
The Beauty Of Virtual Reality
[PhilNote: these are the main bullets from the story about the meditative and psychological value of VR.]
I find virtual reality to be a great tool to get in touch with one’s self.
In the virtual world, you are anonymous
When you begin to play any game, you jump into another universe and forget about your daily routine in everyday, physical life
Anonymity can give you a renewed sense of power
The bliss of the game—and enjoying yourself for the sake of experiencing a pleasing experience
In the virtual space, there are no resentments or doubts
Playing in the virtual world lets the mind and body connect with new potential
See the full story here: https://goodmenproject.com/culture/the-beauty-of-virtual-reality-grmx/
Emmys: Nominations Reflect Virtual Reality Growth
This year also marked the first nomination for a Facebook Live broadcast as well as the first original Snapchat show.
A trio of VR projects on Thursday were nominated for outstanding original interactive program: Mission: ISS, a virtual visit to the International Space Station, produced by Oculus and Magnopus; Dear Angelica, which reflects on the way we remember loved ones, directed by Pixar alum Sascha Unseld via Oculus Story Studio, the recently shuttered VR content creation arm of Oculus; and The People's House – Inside the White House With Barack and Michelle Obama, a tour of the White House from Felix & Paul Studios, along with Oculus and Samsung.
In the category for outstanding creative achievement in interactive media within a scripted program, Emmy voters nominated three VR productions based on popular series: The Mr. Robot Virtual Reality Experience (USA, Universal Cable Productions, Here Be Dragons, Esmail Corp. and Anonymous Content), Stranger Things VR Experience (Netflix and CBS Digital) and The Simpsons' Planet of the Couches (Gracie Films in association with 20th Century Fox, Google Spotlight Stories).
The interactive categories, often a mixed bag of digital, linear and experimental projects, also handed out nominations to Amazon for its Resistance Radio project, a companion to its alternative history drama series The Man in the High Castle. Nominated for outstanding creative achievement in interactive media within a scripted program, the project offers up a series of fictional radio broadcasts. The Discover Westworld website, a promotion for the HBO drama that nabbed 22 total Emmy nominations on Thursday, also was nominated in the same category.
Meanwhile, in the category for outstanding creative achievement in interactive media within an unscripted program, there were two nominations that were the first of their kind. Stand for Rights: A Benefit for the ACLU With Tom Hanks has become the first Facebook Live broadcast to receive an Emmy nomination, and comes a little more than a year after the live feature rolled out on the social networking giant.
That category also yielded the first nomination for an original Snapchat show, The Voice on Snapchat. The show, a companion series to the popular NBC competition show and one of several originals that the app has commissioned over the last year, streams on Snapchat's Discover platform and is set to return with a new season on Sept. 25.
See the full story here: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/behind-screen/emmys-nominations-reflect-virtual-reality-growth-1020902