HAL 9000
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NASA is creating a ChatGPT-like assistant for astronauts
NASA is developing a system that will allow astronauts to perform maneuvers, conduct experiments and more using a natural-language ChatGPT-like interface.
HAL 9000 replica's crowdfunding project goes bust
A crowdfunding project for a voice-activated HAL 9000 replica has gone bust after the company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
Why is Siri female (in the US at least)?
Have you ever wondered why most of the default voices for computers are female? Although Siri is male in the UK and France, it's female in the U.S., Australia, and Germany. CNN's Brandon Griggs pondered this question in a post last month, and found that -- among other things -- people find women's voices more pleasing than men's. Griggs quoted Stanford University Professor Clifford Nass, author of a book about human-machine relationships, as saying "It's much easier to find a female voice that everyone likes than a male voice that everyone likes. It's a well-established phenomenon that the human brain is developed to like female voices." According to Nass, this preference starts in the womb, as fetuses react to the sound of their mother's voice but not to other female voices or their father's voices. Another reason could be that telephone operators have traditionally been female, so people are used to getting assistance from a woman's voice -- realizing that certain age iPhone users and younger may have never heard a real, live telephone operator. There are other theories. Tim Bajarin of Creative Strategies Inc. believes that tech companies try to stay away from the sound of male computer voices due to the HAL 9000 computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey. HAL's soothing male voice didn't cover the fact that he was insane and intent on killing his human crew mates. The post goes on to state that many experts expect that Siri will come with a choice of voices, accents and genders someday, so that if you're a little peeved with "her" voice right now, you can replace it with a voice more to your liking. Speech technology firm Nuance's director of advanced speech design thinks that in the future there's a "huge opportunity for personalization. I could have an approximation of my wife's voice read me a text message in my car."
ThinkGeek IRIS 9000 promises to make 2012 a desk-bound odyssey
The comparisons between Siri and HAL 9000 were pretty tough to avoid, and the folks at ThinkGeek have now come through to do what they do best: take things to a ridiculous extreme. In this case, that comes in the form of the IRIS 9000, a familiar-looking fellow that doubles as a dock for your iPhone 4S. It has a remote that lets you activate Siri from afar, a built-in mic and speaker that lets you interact with Siri (or make phone calls) and, of course, a glowing red LED eye that makes Siri suitably menacing. Now, ThinkGeek has been known to produce some faux products in the past, but last we checked it wasn't April Fools' day, and the company has assured us that this is indeed real and set to be available in the spring of next year for $60. Video of your new favorite desk mate is after the break.
Scientists build WiFi hunter-killer drone and call it SkyNET... Viene Tormenta!
You'd think scientists would proscribe certain names for their inventions -- you wouldn't be taken seriously if your supercomputer was called HAL 9000, WOPR or Proteus IV would you? Well, a team from the Stevens Institute of Technology isn't listening, because it's developing an aerial drone and calling it SkyNET. A Linux box, strapped to a Parrot A.R. Drone, can fly within range of your home wireless network and electronically attack it from the air. Whilst internet-only attacks are traceable to some extent, drone attacks are difficult to detect until it's too late -- you'd have to catch it in the act and chase it off with a long-handled pitchfork, or something. The team is working on refining the technology to make it cheaper than the $600 it currently costs and advise that people toughen up their domestic wireless security. We advise they stop pushing us ever closer towards the Robopocalypse.
No Comment: Just what do you think of this decal, Dave?
This MacBook decal is great, and it looks like it would work well on your iPad, too -- though you might not get that glowing effect that makes it so awesome. We've seen quite a few fun decals similar to this before, including some specifically for the iPad, some for the iPhone, and even some other great geeky ones. But none have made such a statement about the ubiquity of computers lately, so we'll just post this one right here under No Comment. Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do ...
LaCie intros 5big Network drive array to RAID junkies the world over
The LaCie product roof has been raised to 7.5TB with the new 5big Network -- an Active Directory and gigabit Ethernet-friendly array of storage drives that supports several RAID configurations for up to five hot-swappable hard drives. You can try it on in four different sizes -- 2.5TB for $899.99, 5TB for $1,399, or the aforementioned, bar-raising 7.5TB for $1,899. In keeping with his sixteen year relationship with LaCie, the renowned Neil Poulton applied his HAL 9000-inspired design to the product, winning him another Janus de L'industrie award. The only problem with the HAL motif: you really, really don't want your RAID storage device to drone on about how its "mind is going, Dave."[Via Technabob]
Movie Gadget Friday: 2010: The Year We Make Contact
Ariel Waldman contributes Movie Gadget Friday, where she highlights the lovable and lame gadgets from the world of cinema.Last week on Movie Gadget Friday we kicked off our two-part series in honor of the late Arthur C. Clarke with 2001: A Space Odyssey. This week continues our tribute as we look into some of the support systems on board Discovery 1 and the Leonov in 2010: The Year We Make Contact. While we hear Dave Bowman proclaim "My God, it's full of stars", we can't help but dig through this film full of gadgets. HAL 9000 and SAL 9000Designed as an artificial emotional intelligence machine, the HAL 9000 and SAL 9000 require human interaction for enhanced performance. Represented by a blue camera eye and female voice, SAL 9000 served as a guide to monitoring potential reactions by the previously disabled HAL 9000. Both machines incorporate keyboard and audio input to communicate with intelligent carbon-based lifeforms (read: us). The HAL 9000 is adept at facial, vocal, and vital sign recognition and makes decisions based on a strict understanding of logic. HAL maintains numerous responsibilities while acting as the brain and central nervous system of Discovery 1. Though HAL appears to be programmed to protect the crew, there are obvious and inherent flaws in his logic programming, resulting in -- spoiler alert -- in committing homicide to resolve conflicting commands. More after the jump.
