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Seedea's virtual assistant

(:seedeavirtualassistanttesting:)

Have a mini-tachikoma (friendly robot from Ghost in the Shell) always running in the background.

Functionalities

• new information arrives (new ideas, new comment, etc) and it waves at you a bit, when you click on it a comic-like bubble opens with the content of the news
  • information feeds are pre-configure but can be changed
  • feeds frequency and updates importance are based on usage (the more you read and like them, the more will come)
• You have a link to share, you just drag&drop the text from your browser or the attachment on your tachikoma
  • the content is send with your account like all the other inputs through the API
• When you follow a specific method, your tachikoma warms you about deadlines, about the next things to do or when you need to take a break
  • it queries a database of suggestions based on good practices compatible with your current projects

Your team/lab/company/university's mascot as your assistant!

Federate your team around Seedea by leveraging your culture. Your community will then be gathered around your own mascot and be creative in a joyful atmosphere.

PS : it would also be used to simplify connectivity by providing IM login of the mascot instead of "Seedea". It could be said to "live within" the SeedeaKey ;)

Technical platform and interactions

Technically it could be a desktop widget or just a tray application, something based on ToolsRSSnotifier?.

It would basically be a specific interface to Input so that IM and other mean would be added more easily since it's easier for people to add a "virtual assistant" than a tool.

One version would also be on the website (little AJAX show), probably only in the dedicated Tech community, and would propose to get installed for users who want to.

Visual interface

Visuals should be extremely light, not 3D rendering and no large image, probably fixed size pictures with 16 different movement/positions.

Find PixelArt version, 128x128 with transparency (png or gif) with a predefined set of position/actions with transitions between them.

Even possibly... for real fans... a real mini-tachikoma ;)

Desktop(Offsite)->Website(Onsite) and Website->Desktop

Principle : having one seamless assistant.

Have it as a desktop widget but also integrated to the website, your same personalized mini-tachikoma would follow you when you are on the website and when you live it.

To manage the transition manually :

• the user ask the mini-tachikoma to "dive into Seedea" by double-clicking on the desktop widget/icon tray
  • it hides on the desktop by removing its visuals
  • send an HTTP request to the website
  • open the website URL
  • the website handle the HTTP request (API hook) and start the online mini-tachikoma with the user's preferences
• the user call the mini-tachikoma back by double-clicking on the desktop widget/icon tray
  • it send another HTTP request to kill a running instance on the website if any
  • the website handle the HTTP request (API hook) and stop the online mini-tachikoma (if it is running)
  • the mini-tachikoma loads it (eventually updated) preferences
  • it shows itself again on the desktop by changing its visuals

To manage the transition automatically :

The difficulty is to detect when the user is on the website and when he is not without being intrusive.

• the desktop widget periodically requests the website using the API to see if the user is currently logged on or not
  • probably heavy (high update frequency)
  • slow (low update frequency), possibility to miss transitions if the user quits the website abruptly
    • the user could then "wake up" the widget manually

Realization

Onsite environment (website widget)

See (:seedeavirtualassistant:) recipe for pmwiki.

Offsite environment (desktop widget)

1. modify RSSNotifier to include
   1. Non-rectangular Windows Update from The Rabbit Hole
   2. pictures of the mascot for all the moves
   3. calls to Seedea API
   4. handle transitions
   5. prepare a configuration file?
      1. double-click link it to the user dedicated profile of his assistant
      2. RSS on his own ideas
      3. personally generated Seedea API key
2. package all this as a JNLP file
   1. include a link within Seedea website

To explore

• Personalized Assistant that Learns (PAL) used in project CALO (Cognitive Assistant that Learns and Organizes)

  • 8. CALO Integrated Task Learning Information Sciences Institute (ISI), University of Southern California for AAAI-08
  • 9. CALO Workflow Recognition and Proactive Assistance Artificial Intelligence Center, SRI for AAAI-08

• From Brows to Trust, Evaluating Embodied Conversational Agents, Springer 2004
• Augmented Reality section in my analysis on Hi-Tech Creativity
  • ARToolKit tutorial (in japanese)
  • including a Tachikoma example and its video
• Prerequisites of the Development of a Personalised Virtual Butler by the Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence (OFAI)
• Siri Your Virtual Personal Assistant
  • current version (early 2010) of Siri is built for iPhone 3GS (3.1 or later) and works only in the US
• question answering engines in my Needs page