Experiment 6: Is Outfitting Computers With Verbal Interfaces Currently Possible?

Almost every science fiction series has an often overlooked feature. Their computers have verbal interfaces. One can quite literally tell the computer what to do. That got me thinking... Both hardware and software have advanced dramatically, especially in the last two years. Could it be possible to assemble a make-shift verbal computer interface?

Here are the criteria that a verbal interface must meet. First it must have the ability to do specific orders or conduct tasks. Second, carry out casual conversation like a real person would. Finally, it must be done on a fairly weak Windows 7 PC. Those three challenges may seem overwhelming, but will be overcome with a little creativity.

What software do you need for the verbal interface?

1. Nuance Dragon Naturally Speaking 11
2. RoboForm 7
3. WinAutomation
4. TechSmith Camtasia or TechSmith Snagit
5. ABBYY FineReader 10 Professional Edition
6. NaturalReader
7. Decaptcher
8. A. L. I. C. E. The Artificial Linguistic Internet Computer Entity
9. Cleverbot

Dragon Naturally Speaking is used as a core component. It can recognize your and digitally generated speech and covert it into text. That is a key function in the verbal interface which no other tool can do. DNS needs some training and is lacking in some ways, so we use the other eight programs listed above to enhance its abilities.

RoboForm 7 is used in automating online interactions. One makes a general profile containing a name, email, password, DOB etc. When prompted online for input, like on login forms, RF7 fills it in. It is quite the versatile little program, because it can work on Internet Explorer, Opera, Firefox and Chrome. Also, it stores your logins and passwords in a password protected database and can input them on request.

WinAutomation is the second core component. It is a strong windows automation software and macro recorder. This means that you can automate and schedule any repetitive job or process on your computer. It serves as a processing tool for DNS which will be described later.

TechSmith Camtasia or TechSmith Snagit are both screen capture software. They serve exactly that purpose. Camtasia allows for recording videos while Snagit allows for printscreens. They are used as a secondary system which feeds input to other automation software and procedures.

ABBYY FineReader 10 is an extremely smart OCR (optical character recognition) instrument which is used for textual content recognition and creating editable and searchable electronic files from scanned documents, PDFs and digital photographs.

NaturalReader is uses to patch up a great flaw in Dragon Naturally Reading. It is used to read text from a computer out loud. It does so in a very natural sounding voice. NR can read from pictures too. In more complex operations, NR reads text that is being feed from other programs.

Decaptcher is a controversial service. It allows for solving those CAPTCHA letters automatically. For $2 one gets 1000 solved. This is used mostly in conjuction with RoboForm.

A. L. I. C. E. The Artificial Linguistic Internet Computer Entity is used for the talking and personality part. It is a web service with which one can communicate. You type something in an then the robot responds etc. you interact with one another. WinAutomation is used to communicate the data to NaturalReader. ALICE is very polite and outgoing; very pleasant and cooperative conversationalist. It is used as the formal computer personality representative. You can download it too and set up locally.

Cleverbot is used for adding flare to the simulated AI. When this mode is activated, the AI becomes a very different conversationalists. The best description would be like a drunk smart-ass. All that rudeness is then read and passed along to speech or text.

Now that we are familiar with the programs and their basic functions it is time to define their interactions and finally make the whole damn thing work.


How to make the verbal interface do things?

Dragon Naturally Speaking is used to accept verbal input. It converts speech into text or executing commands and even some basic command sequences. DNS would be configured to work in 4 different modes: executing commands locally and online and working in two talk modes; polite and smart-ass. DNS is supposed to convert verbal input into preconfigured commands.

Because DNS can't execute complex tasks, it knows how to send commands to other software. We will be linking it to another program called WinAutomation. The WinAutomation software can execute even the most complex tasks and even macro them in loops and give feedback. It is used to cover the verbal interface's ability to do any preconfigured local and online task. As such WA can be considered as the main server of the verbal interface. That server can interact with all other programs we use.

Camtasia or Snagit are used to capture images of "the difficult" things into text, like text which can't be copied or is on a picture. Afterwards ABBY FineReader can interpret it into copyable text or NaturalReader can read it aloud. Which reminds me, DNS doesn't have a good text to speech converter. NaturalReader must be used to patch that.

RoboForm and Decaptcher are used to smooth out internet interactions. Once set up, they can fill practically any form on any website. DNS and WA are used to read the relevant content or input spoken commands. This also applies to the chat mode. In chat mode, your verbal input is transferred to one of the chat personalities; ALICE or Cleverbot. The robots response is then transformed into human-like speech.
Here is an overall general diagram of this verbal interface's layout:

 (click to enlarge)

The things mentioned above don't seem all that hard to imagine doing. Hope you found this useful and interesting.

Off-Topic: 21 Reviewed And Recommended Documentary Films

What follows is a list of titles of documentaries that are very important to me. they encourage scientific thinking and open my mind to various possibilities. But be careful! The basic rule of science is that you take nothing for granted. You have to critically think for yourself regarding the claims laid out in these films. Only then can you make some worthwhile conclusions. I say this so you will not have think that I am filling you up with pseudo-science and esoteric new age stuff. Sometimes it's more rewarding to know when something is not the truth!

1. Zeitgeist 1 - a classic, a lot of unfounded allegations
2. Zeitgeist 2 - classic, looks mostly at the monetary system
3. Zeitgeist 3 - recently released a story about the problems / dangers and possible global solutions
4. The Secret - a lot of unfounded allegations, opens mind, "if you really want something, then the whole world conspires for you to get that"
5. What The Bleep Do We Know - this is one of the best docu-movies ever, a story about the nature of reality and a little about quantum physics
6. What the Bleep Do We Know: Down The Rabbits Hole - this is an extended version, be sure to see it
7. Esoteric Agenda - may be considered far-fetched, looks at the history and social problems
8. Kymatica - may be considered far-fetched, looks at the history and social problems
9. Freedom Movie 1 - relatively good movie, presents a series of hazards / problems that people face every day and proposes solutions for each
10. Freedom Movie 2 - same as above, except that it concentrates more on the psychological and spiritual
11. Gregg Braden: Awakening to Zero Point - may be considered far-fetched, lasts for 4 hours, harder is boring, is incredible scientific facts
12. Gregg Braden: The Science of Miracles - may be considered far-fetched, refers to the power / ability to cure, presents incredible scientific experiments
13. Tesla: The Race to Zero Point Energy - refers to the concept of perpetuum mobile, interviews a variety of inventors, pay special attention to the inertial drive and generating electricity with the help of heat exchangers, on a personal note; I intend to dissect this movie in a future post
14. Future By Design - classic, refers to the Venus Project of genius Jacques Fresco and their work, be sure to see
15. Elegant Universe - The story of the nature of reality / existence, from the physical point of view, results in quantum physics, very simply and accurately described
16. Fractals: Hunting The hidden Dimension - refers to the mathematical concept of fractal geometry, leads to self-organization, etc.
17. Money Masters 1 - explains the nature of the monetary system in an accurate, simple, unambiguous and brutal way, a classic
18. Money Masters 2 - a continuation of the above, refers to the monetary and market system
19. Magical Egypt - long enough, discusses the ancient Egyptians, may be considered as very controversial stuff
20. Ancient Aliens - may be considered far-fetched, talking about the evidence the existence of aliens, and possible contact
21. Mysterious Origins of Man - debate about the development of human civilization, prepare to be amazed

I hope you like this list. If you are a neutral person and was just looking for some information on the above listed titles, go to imdb.com. If you were the law-abiding-citizen, and wanted to watch those movies you would go to e.g. amazon.com and buy them. If you were an evil hacker and wanted to watch them for free you would go to topdocumentaryfilms.com. 

Well what are you waiting for, you have read (or listened) the post. Hope you find it useful. Maybe you're even considering leaving a comment?

Off-topic: Fractal drawings

There is a way of utilizing sets of rules which in return form a complex pattern on a 2D or 3D graph. While reading this you will be presented with 7 different examples of fractal drawings. Welcome to the beautiful world of creating drawings with the help of numbers. Don't worry, they not only cover the subject from an artistic point of view, but also examine some really strange (scientifically speaking, lol, this is a technical term) behavior. The basis of all this are iterations; you will see what I mean from the pictures. Now, let's proceed..

First off there is the Minkowski sausage. Let's start with 0 iterations:

Next, 1 iteration:

2 iterations:

You see where this is going. To make things a little more interesting; it must be considered what would happen if there was a lot of iterations. Imagine you could make an infinite number of them. Strange things would happen. It is all described in the following picture:

 

How do you like that? The length of the line enclosing the area reaches infinity while the area that is enclosed remains the same as it was in all other iterations.

Now have a look at the so-called Multibrot set. Starting with the exponent 1 (the first "iteration")

 Following is the world-wide famous Mandelbrot set. The exponent is 2:

Let's try 3 as the exponent:

 This one is for the laughs. Presenting a perception of similarity:

Returning to serious business, here is the fist 3D fractal - the Sierpiński tetrahedron. Take a note of the surface area and volume progression, starting at 0 iterations:

Next, 1 iteration:

2 iterations:

And finally we are tired of these small numbers and decide to let the number of iterations go to infinity. Here is the result:

The scroller next to that huge number would be too big/thin, so we switch to the powers of 10. The surface area is the same, while the volume goes to 0

Next in line of 3D fractal drawings is the Menger sponge. You know what to pay attention to. At 0 iterations it looks like a cube:

Here it is at 1 iteration:

2 iterations:

Enough, give me infinite iterations:

The surface area goes to infinity while its volume goes to 0. Now isn't that very unusual? hehe

Some fractals need a bit of tinkering to unlock. I present to you the curlicue fractal. The variables here are the constant and the number of iterations. If the use 0 as a constant and 2000000 as the number of iterations, we get:

Well that gave a line. Let's try 1 as the constant. The number of iterations remains the same:

Wow, that gave another line. Let's try to find something a little more different. If the constant equals the number Pi and the number of iterations is the same, then we get:

Now we are talking. It's unlocked. Let's try the number Pi divided by the square root of 2 as the constant and the same number of iterations:

That's really beautiful and unexpected. Wonder what would happen if the constant got 50 times smaller?

To be honest this fractal has too many faces to be able to reveal it's entire beauty in a couple of pictures. You are encouraged to go to Wolfram Alpha and try out at least a couple of dozen other variations.

The last fractal drawing from this series is the Pythagoras tree. It may even help us reveal some of natures self-determining growth mechanisms. Don't take my word for it, have a look at these pictures:

Notice the iteration rule. 1 is represented by the small square, while 4 is represented by the larger square. Next we have 2 and 4:

Ok, it's starting to look like something. For the final touch we use 3 and 4:

And there it is, a tree like drawing created by mathematics. Makes me wonder, how many other things can be represented and understood with the help of fractals? What ever could we do with universal pattern finding knowledge? Seriously, some things that come to mind are the universal translator, compression of data, fractal graphics, greater prediction precision of everything, etc. Special thanks goes to the Wolfram Alpha website, without it all these beautiful pictures wouldn't be here.

Anyhow, hope you enjoyed this lengthy presentation. I am curious, which patterns did you see? That's what comment box is for.

Experiment 5: Alleged unusual behavior of water

Some time ago I've stumbled upon the work of a scientist named Masaru Emoto (sorry for the wikipedia link). He claims to have observed/discovered unusual behavior of water. The following video clip, taken from the movie What The Bleep Do We Know, provides an adequate demonstration:

If his claims are true, then we have discovered another anomaly of water. Well to be honest, if water can change it's density in an anomalous fashion and we have jet to explain why, then I see no reason why we shouldn't give the kind of behavior seen in the above video a scientific chance?

On the other hand, in all fairness and by the laws of critical thinking, Masaru Emoto's claims seem to be preposterous. The methodology used in his experiments seems to be biased. Ever heard of double-blind experiments? That is why a scientist named Kristopher Setchfield put Emoto's claims to the test. Here is a quote from his concluding paragraph:

"After the lengthy review of Emoto’s research methods and results, I have come to believe that Dr. Emoto is offering pseudoscience to the masses in the guise of defensible research."

If you would like to read the whole paper, here is the link.

Another internet site owner made an offer to Emoto:

"I will pay Dr. Masaru Emoto $10,000.00 if he can identify, in a double-blind study, what someone's mood was when they were meditating over vials of water."

As far as I know, the challenge hasn't been accepted.

In conclusion, I've laid out some basic claims and their respectful skeptics. If there is any chance that water can respond to intent and other mental stimuli, we have an obligation as scientist to "figure it out". On the other hand, if there is irrefutable proof this "water anomaly" is a hoax, then the subject should be treated as such.

I'm hoping this post will start a comments debate. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

Experiment 4: Device for healing bacterial and viral diseases

Have a look at this video. It is a lecture made by doctor Robert (aka Bob) Beck.



In that video, doctor Beck proposes an astonishing claim: one can heal himself of all bacterial and viral diseases by using a simple electronic device. That claim begs for confirmation. If such a device works as described, it would mean an end to all known pathogenic diseases. Since I don't have access to a bio-lab, microscopes, blood samples and similar, here is a schematic of the device and the necessary parts list. Click on an image to enlarge it, then right click to save it.

Maybe someone will do the research and share the findings with the world. I don't mean to startle anyone, but we are looking at a potential cure for AIDS!!! If it wasn't considered morbid, I would propose testing these devices on patients dying from AIDS. How to test such a device in a more ethical way? One could for example take infested blood, then "zap" it, then observe the changes. But watch out for the pharmaceutical companies ;)

As always, your comments and/or questions are most welcome.

Experiment 3: Accelerated plant growth

This is a thought experiment. It is designed to question the possibility of accelerated plant growth. There are two distinct approaches; growing them bigger and growing them faster. But first, a little history reminder: there was a time in our Earth's development when plant dominated its entire surface. They grew in huge numbers and sizes. That period is called Carboniferous. For example the Carboniferous lycophytes of the order Lepidodendrales, were huge trees with trunks 30 meters high and up to 1.5 meters in diameter. Most of our coal supplies were formed in this period.

Those facts gave me an idea. Maybe we could examine and replicate the conditions in which the plants obviously thrived. After some research, I came up with the following list of factors that determine plant height and speed of growth:

1. the concentration of carbon dioxide in the air
2. the air pressure
3. the qualities of light (color and intensity)
4. the qualities of plant nutrients (they do intake them, via their roots)
5. the qualities of the medium in which the plant grows (ground, water, air)

If a lab was made with the purpose of testing the influence of those factors on plant growth, I'm certain they would come up with some excellent and surprising results. The downside is, the entire experiment would take a lot of time and work. Let's put that into perspective.

Imagine you had 10 different plant species, 10 samples of each species. That's 100 plants. If you were to measure 10 different levels of each of the 5 main growth factors (listed above) on those 100 plants, that would add up to 10000000 (10 million) different experiments. And this is barely scratching the surface.

Hope you found this informative. I'm looking forward to your comments.

Experiment 2: Vortex-based electricity generator

I've actually stolen this idea from someone. All praise and tribute and thanks go to the original inventors. Simply put, this device is intended to extract electricity from a tornado. Here is a picture, so you know what I'm talking about:

The base of the device is some sort of container (the blue dots). It is of circular shape. To the right of the device is a water intake, with a valve (the blue arrow and the black X) so it can be turned on and off at will. In the middle of the base is a rotor (the red thing). The rotor is cone-ish shaped turbine, with helical blades. It is attached to an electromotor, which can be used for two purposes: generating the tornado and extracting power from the tornado. The other arrows represent the flow of cold and warm air.

Now that we understand what this is supposed to be, let's proceed to how it should work. First, a quantity of water is released into the base. The rotor turbine spins and starts forming the air-water tornado. This forms a tornado or vortex. Once the tornado has achieved certain conditions, it will start to "feed itself". The difference in air speed, density and direction of movement should start pressing on the turbine. When that is achieved, the motor that is powering the device is switched into power-generating mode.

A control mechanism is conceivable. It would detect the reduction in vortex power and switch the electromotor back to tornado generating. Once the tornado picks ups enough power, it would then switch it (the electromotor) to power-generating mode.

Please let me know what you think about this. The least you can do is leave a comment :P

Experiment 1: Magnets-based electricity generator

This is one of the first devices I've ever came up with. It is based on permanent magnets interactions. You know what they say: a picture says a 1000 words. That's why I made this drawing.

In the upper left corner we can see the general design idea. The device consists of 2 major parts, namely the stator and rotor. They fit tightly together. The stators interior is covered with pairs of permanent magnets, as described in PART 2 of the drawing. The rotor consists of 3 blades, with pairs of permanent magnets at the end of each blade, as described in PART 1 of the drawing. The magnets are permanent, neodymium alloy and magnetized through the thickness. The x,y,z designations refer to standard 3D spatial axes.

I propose, that once constructed, such a device would continue to spin for a long time. Since magnets loose 1-2% of their "power" yearly, the speed of rotation should decrease at that rate. Therefore this is not a perpetuum mobile. The idea is that the stator "forces" the rotor to rotate, and that energy could be transferred via a crank shaft to an adequate electricity generator.

I'm looking forward to your comments. Please let me know what you think.