Ongoing research project in the fields of optical illusion and human-machine interaction. Virtual space / Interactive medium / Showcase for 3D objects.

There was a desire to create a convincing, human-like interaction with a machine to personify Gerkzeuk. The (pseudo-)holographic representation through the Pepper’s Ghost effect is one aspect of this; a crystal is also equipped with a camera, microphone, speaker, and microcomputer.
My reflections on simulating aspects of human appearance and interaction in the context of my work with artificial intelligence since 2015 had the greatest concrete intensity through its technical implementation in this subproject.

The head of a virtual humanoid as a persona of, and connected in the crystal to Gerkzeuk, seen at the exhibition ALLEZ ALLEZ

On the software side, experiments were conducted with:
OpenFace – Facial recognition. Deep-learning-based capability for the computer to recognize faces, distinguish them, assign names, and remember them.
Affdex – Expression recognition. Capability for the computer to interpret the viewer’s facial expressions based on the 7 basic emotions.
SpeechRecognition – Capability of speech recognition, experiments in the areas of keyword recognition and grammar analysis with the “Natural Language Toolkit”.
ChatterBot – Machine-learning-based dialogue system that allows a computer to learn the viewer’s/participant’s word choice and reproduce it in dialogue.
Watir Webdriver – Capability for the computer to independently use the internet, functioning as Google Translate to a text-to-speech program.
Unity – Game engine where the modules come together.

Further design ideas from the work process:

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