ChatterBot Extension:
The CHeXers chatterbot (a derivative of the Hex chatterbot, a past winner of the Loebner contest) has many possibilities for extension. Two significant areas include modularization of the brain files and extensions for integrating it into a command & control environment. Example improvements needed include 1) addition of "production rules", 2) interfaces to external system scripting capabilities, and 3) brain processing, checking, and construction tools.
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Distributed Simulation over the Internet
This project involves completing and updating ViParSim, a distributed, parallel simulator based on the innovative parallel discrete-event simulation system developed by Mani and Chandy. ViParSim implements conservative parallelism, unlike the TimeWarp approach, another simulation methodology based on the Chandy amd Misra model. ViParSim was written for a tightly coupled parallel processor, but the goal now is to implement it on top of one or more distributed computing models over the Internet. Additional enhancements include distributed termination and error handling; performance measurement capabilities (of both the real system and the simulated system).
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X-10 & Rebol for Smart Homes:
The goal of this project is to develop an externally linkable library of X-10 command and control protocols and language dialects within Rebol (and optionally, Python and Perl). In addition, it might prove desirable to develop a distinct language dialect within REBOL for use in Home Automation and SmartHome applications. Various application layers are possible, as well.
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Visualization System for Distributed Simulation:
This project involves completing and updating an interactive visualization system for ViParSim. It can be used to define multiple, user-level graphical views of parallel, distributed simulations based on the Chandy & Misra model. Tasks include: reviving the code, conversion to C++, analysis and selection of existing Internet distributed computing models, view creation, and performance assessment. Technical aspects include animation, video creation, procedural and declarative specifications of visualization behavior. |
Virtual DJs & Internet Radio
Radio stations (the "off air" kind) often have Disc Jockeys that blab between the songs played. They tell you the names of the songs and the groups that played them, read the news, tell you about upcoming events, run canned ads, and the like. Some of these DJs are quite well known and exhibit strong personalities over the airwaves. Over the past several years, it has become more common to find not one but two DJs on the air at the same time, forming DJ teams. They are usually tightly fit to each other with respect to personalities, likes and dislikes, etc. You might know of Howard Stern and Robin Gibbons, for example (not that I approve of them in the least, but they are a classic example).
This project involves the design and implementation of an Internet Radio Station System (viz. Streaming MP3, Netcasting, etc.). The station will be run by a couple of Chatterbot DJs and a host of worker-bots. These chatterbots will NOT talk with humans, only TO humans. They will have a whole slew of MP3s to play over the net, a database of facts about the various songs and groups, a knowledge database of facts about music styles, upcoming concerts, etc. They will also have access to databases of jokes and trivia related to the theme of the station, and so on. Furthermore, they will have access to an email inbox through which listeners can send them requests. These requests can be song requests, requests such as "When Debbie logs in, please tell her Eric sends her his love and wishes her Happy Birthday", profile information such as what types of music they prefer, songs or groups they prefer, and the like. Since the bots will be able to tell who is listening when (e.g., from IP addresses), they will try to ensure that for any group of listeners, they play music that the group is likely to find to their liking.
The research will consider dynamic profiling, knowledge of who is and who is not listening, how many people are listening, access to the weather (using a group of support bots), Turing and Loebner tests, suspension of disbelief, etc. |
Bioinformatics Software & Bots
This software project involves the installation of a library of pubic-domain Perl scripts used to access and monitor the online genomics data bases for use in biotechnology and bioinformatics research. The Perl code will be used to implemenmt a top-layer of smart bots and Internet agents for autonomous, background support activities.
Additionally, the project involves the installation and integration of BLAST on a lab Macintosh server. Available as Open Source software, Apple/Genentech BLAST is up to five times faster than the standard BLAST implementation used to accelerate protein and DNA searches in biomedical research and drug discovery.
Both systems and the bot/agent layers and libraries will be integrated with the separate Bot Hosting project (see above).
Related Reference Material:
- The Portable Perl Bioinformatics Lab.
- Apple/Genentech BLAST, Significantly Accelerating Protein and DNA Searches for the Biomedical Community: Up to five times faster than 2-GHz Pentium 4-based systems. (press release)
- Apple/Genentech BLAST Resources
- Apple/Genentech BLAST (source code)
AI Pets
 The artificial pets in Blade Runner (actually, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep") were so "lifelike" that the black-market for "real" animals actually thrived as a direct result, and owners often secretly paraded their real pets in public while pretending that they were "artificial", since no one could tell the difference from the artificial ones.  We may be far from that specific future, but we're not that far! What will the architectures of future artificial pets look like? What sensors will be required/desirable? How will their personalities be constructed and evolve through interactions with their humans? How will the chip architectures and the mechatronics be structured and designed? This project involces construction of a software simulator, testbed, and multiple personality models for next-generation AI pets. The goal is to go well beyond the current crop of AI pets, such as Furby, the Sony Aibo, the CyberKitty, and the others.
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Singing Computers
As part of the research effort in talking bots that use speech synthesis and speech recognition to carry on verbal conversations with humans, it occasionally becomes desirable to respond with other than straightforward “talking”. Examples include laughing, noise making, and singing. This project will develop a software tool set that lets computers sing songs derived from industry-standard Karaoke files and the VocalWriter application. Multiple computer voices can sing together, and either acapella or with a music track. One specific requirement of this project is to get the computer to sing Sympathy for the Devil, by the Rolling Stones, from more than one emotional state. The project requirements also call for integrating the results into common sequencers, such as Cubasis or AcidPro; the results will be used as "station identifiers" and theme songs for the Virtual DJ Internet Radio project. Related technologies include: MIDI, sound conversion, MP3 formats, AIFF, sound processing, and voice cloning.
Listen to some examples!
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SmartTVs™
Most research on next-generation TV systems and architectures is "settop box centric," yet there remains vast opportunities to radically redefine the nature of and the role of the TV as a next-generation information and entertainment appliance. The research projects in this area involve movements toward 1) ubiquitous computing and TVs, 2) whole-house A/V architectures, and 3) radical digital convergence. Related efforts include SmartHomes, the Semantic Web, and Artificial Minds.
Related Reference Material:
- Next-Generation Remote Controls, Doug DeGroot.
- JavaTV, Doug DeGroot.
- ShowShifter.
- OCAP - Open Cable Application Platform.
- Multimedia Home Platform.
- Understanding Digital TV: The Route to HDTV, Brian Evans, IEEE Press.
- Answers to Television Technology: An Encore, Cecil Smith.
- Troubleshooting and Repairing Solid-State TVs, Homer Davidson.
Scheduling and Load Balancing for Parallel Processing using Simulated Annealing
This project involves the completion of an existing experimental software optimization tool (SA.C) that is used to discover "near optimal" mappings of computation graphs onto hardware graphs that represent reconfigurable, scalable, parallel processor systems. the first phase of the project has already been completed, and simulated annealing search strategies can be used to map the software onto static configurations of the parallel processor system. The second phase, namely deriving optimal system sizes and configurations for a given parallel application has not yet been studied or implemented. The goal is to explore the utility of simulated annealing in solving the complex problem of building optimal systems with optimal performance for embedded computing applications.
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How to Pass the Turing Test by Cheating
