Teaching An Old Dog (Me) Some New Tricks

I tend to wonder just how much easier all these artificial intelligent projects would be if I just simply went to school for computer science.  I have been trying my best to soak up as much knowledge as I can regarding anything remotely close to artificial intelligence and somehow, I came across this project.

This is the brainchild of the USC Institute For Creative Technologies.  Apparently, this department located at the University of Southern California has been in the business of creating virtual humans for over 10 years.

In the video, we see what looks like humans interacting with a virtual human in a situation to where it appears as if the virtual human is acting like a physiatrist.  What really stood out for me was the virtual human picking up on the motions and demeanor of the actual human and then responding accordingly.  In my world, this is nothing short of spectacular.  This alone is cutting edge when it comes to digital interaction with virtual humans. If I could get Denise to listen and learn by observing me, then responding accordingly would be absolutely incredible. 

The thing that really excites me is that this toolkit, developed by USCIFCT is available for download on their web site.

As if my brain wasn’t already feeling fried by the massive amount of information I have been learning about, now it seems I have even more learning to do.