Robots & Avatars

Sorry for that long delay but I was working on my new book, Robots & Avatars. Here is a "teaser":

Since the dawn of humanity, man tries to replicate the living. Among the legends that have influenced this quest, the myth of Pygmalion has a special place. Helped by Venus in the genesis of an artificial beauty, the ancient king fell to his irresistible charm. Since then, the descendants of Galatea has taken many forms: living statues to automatons, robots to cyborgs and clones, artificial intelligence to avatars, to the ghosts that haunt the memory of computers. This book brings together a collection of spectacular images that illustrate the evolution of robots and avatars. It reveals trends in a symbiotic future where the creator and his creation, science and imagination mix.

A final point: its in french... but the color illustrations are so nice. A great gift for christmas!

Alicia answers questions of entrepreneurs

Alicia is the first on-line application of the EVA technology. You can discuss with Alicia on the following page. Alicia was designed for the french Hauts-de-Seine County near Paris to help people searching information about the creation of compagnies. Alicia implements a conversational intelligent agent that is able to answer questions in the french natural language thanks to its knowledge-base which includes near 500 rules. Don't be afraid ! Alicia is not based on the "schizophrenic" architecture (see previous post) but rather on a classical and simpler character design. The animated 3D interface was created by Jean-Philippe Lebrun and most of the integration work was done by Ilyasse El-Khaira. The FAQ knowledge base was implemented in the EVA language by Jean-Claude Torrel. Many thanks to them and also to all the people from the 92 County who works on the Alicia project.

Artificial Life & Robotics 2009

Our paper “An Evolutionary Nano-Agent Control Architecture for Intelligent Artificial Creatures” has been presented at the 14th International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics (AROB) in Beppu (Japan) last february. Here is the abstract of the paper: This paper describes a new multi-agent architecture for the Evolutionary Virtual Agent project. It introduces the nano-agent bio-inspired control architecture and its nanoScheme programming language. A typical application consists of one or more nano-agents, and possibly up to a large number if necessary as in natural swarms. As an example, it describes an online self-animated character that uses natural language and emotional expressions. This virtual character is based on a “schizophrenic” model composed of multiple distinct personalities, each with its own pattern of perceiving and interacting with the user.

About Development Tools

EVA is developped as an open source project. The major part of the source code is designed with the NanoScheme Language and requires no compiler nor specific developement tools. However, we encourage the use of a text editor with Lips editing capabilities such as Notepad++. For more information or to download this editor:

http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/

The EVA's core technology is designed using the Java language. The current implementation uses the SDK 1.4.2_02 version. You can have more information and download this software developement kit at:

http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/api/index.html
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/download.html

The Matrix Oracle Demo

This is the first available on-line demo. Click here to launch the demo in your web browser. It is a simplified version of an interactive installation we have designed for last year's exhibition of our multimedia school in Paris. However, be patient since there are some images to load... A complete description of the installation has been published at the Virtual System and Multimedia conference last year (download the paper here). The virtual creature is an oracle in the "matrix", so she generaly answers in a pseudo-philosophical and enigmatic way to questions (like in the movie). This demonstration is based on a pure reactive implementation, that is without any "memory". This is the simplest way to implement an application with the EVA technology.

EVA at the Entrepreneurship Exhibition in Paris

This is a photo of a demonstration of the EVA technology we have done during the Salon des Entrepreneurs (Paris, 6-7 February 2008). The interface was designed as an animated character using Flash and displayed on a large LCD screen. This virtual assistant was able to answer in natural language to visitors about the creation of new companies in the "Hauts-de-Seine" state (Conseil Général du département 92). Thanks to this result, the next version of the state website will include an online EVA agent called Alicia. This new website will be online in the begining of January 2009. More information soon.

EVA 5 Release 15

This is the first available EVA release for download. The Zip file contains a simple applet example and all the necessary source files for developing your own application. Click here to download this release. Note that there is no Java source file since it is absolutly not necessary nor recommended to modify the EVA core technology. However, you will find here a Java source example if you need to develop your own Chat client with EVA.