Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Internet Search Agent with Physical Manifestation

Your Next Virtual Best Friend!
  (+4, -1)
(+4, -1)
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One day it WILL happen. Google won't be enough. *gasp* Yes, as horrifiying as that prospect is, we all must face the fact that our search needs will continue to become more and more demanding, not to mention increasingly complex.

Meet the Internet Search Agent w/ Physical Manifestation ISAPM (proun. eye-SAP-em). Powered by an A.I.-enhanced software search engine, ISAPM will intelligently begin to custom-tailor itself to its user and his/her personal tastes. This software can also make requests & purchases that are user-approved. Over time, as ISAPM becomes more familar, the system will begin to make judgments of it own, a kind of "software intuition". (i.e "It is Tuesday, Mr. Bond. Shall I call down to the bar and tell them to expect you? The usual, Mr. Bond? Shaken, not stirred?"

But no more typing requests. ISAPM can use a voice activated "RL avatar" that has the capability of detaching from its charger station and going portable. Wireless connections provide nonstop internet hookup. In this way, the "RL avatar" could interact with a user, providing information without needing to be by a computer. The avatar would also feature full-range motion, able to plug itself back into its charger station if left unattended. The possibilites for avatar models are endless, espcially if movie tie-ins are integrated. Miniture C3POs anyone?

The avatar is operated by instuctions sent by software residing on the user's computer. Thus, a user can also directely interface with the software itself while using that computer. The GUI of the software would of course be a visual and audio representation of its RL counterpart.

I can't wait for my personal avatar to arrive in the mail: a croissant shaped one!

Lucky_Setzer, Aug 02 2001

"Beezle" in the Otherland novels http://www.google.c...?q=beezle+otherland
Not much direct info on the web, but I recommend reading the books. [Jim, Aug 02 2001]

For CoolerKing... http://www.satirewi...evesinterview.shtml
'Interview with the search engine.' "Damn the bee!" [StarChaser, Aug 02 2001, last modified Oct 17 2004]

[link]






       Hey this is actually a good idea. I have one modification. I think you should be able to set your ISAPM to develop a personality of your choice and choose the voice you want for read back on the avatar. The reason I say this is because C3PO sounds and acts like a gay boy and I don't want that. Well I am sure this has been done in a movie somewhere but hey it is a good idea. Come on some technology company out there go and do it !
Monkeyboy2, Aug 02 2001
  

       If it's smart enough to buy shit for you, what keeps it from being smart enough to make other decisions for you? And don't piss it off! With all that intimate knowledge it would have of you, you could be replaced real easily...
zencoder, Aug 02 2001
  

       A simple fix: the software is bound by the Three Laws of Robotics (Hmmm...gonna have to change the name of those). And in case of an emergency threatening the entire human race, the little known Fourth Law of Robotics may also be observed.   

       Sorry, HAL...
Lucky_Setzer, Aug 02 2001
  

       Baked: see the character "Beezle" in the "Otherland" novels by Tad Williams - a small spiderlike search-agent robot that its owner talks to, it even has a charging station.
Jim, Aug 02 2001
  

       Isn't this kind of like the commercials for the "Ask Jeeves" search engine?
mwburden, Aug 02 2001
  

       I still haven't found anyone who has found pages even remotely linked to what they searched for through Ask Jeeves. I tried to find guitar tablature for Fun Lovin' Criminals through it a while back and it cheerfully went about showing me pages about real criminals. That's the closest I've ever got with AJ.
CoolerKing, Aug 02 2001
  

       Isn't this just the anoying paper clip thingy of Office fame, in a new guise?
[ sctld ], Aug 02 2001
  

       Only if it was a real paperclip. Then you could tread on it and kill it.
Jim, Aug 02 2001
  

       I don't a paperclip can be killed, that's why Microsoft chose it.
salmon, Feb 04 2002
  

       The trick with this is that people change tastes and habits over time. If this thing were allowed to go continuously, people with avatars would be easily recognizable by their out-of-fashion clothes.
RayfordSteele, Feb 04 2002
  

       This idea reminds me of the holographic Albert Einstein in the movie A. I.The part where the main character is asking about the "blue fairy." Anyway, Lucky_Setzer, What you are talking about is machine- learning, a seperate category within artificial intelligence. Machine-learning wouldn't work as well as you might think. People usually don't follow a pattern when entering a query into a search engine. Their queries are usually not related to each other in any profound manner, therefore machine-learning wouldn't be too usefull.
Chronocide, Jul 02 2003
  

       There's the robot that goes back to its charger when it's tired (the Aibo Mark II), and there's software that tries to guess what you want based on past purchases (on every other Internet retailer's website, e.g. Amazon). Why you would want to combine the two is beyond me.
jutta, Jul 30 2004
  
      
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