Tag Archives: CES

Samsung’s NEON digital avatars shouted as artificial humans

Reading Time: 4 minutes

The fact that Samsung will appear with its new project at CES 2020 has been loud for a long time. Everyone was wondering what artificial humans could be. And one thing is certain. After all the media noise around the project, everyone expected something completely different. Especially after prematurely disclosed material, which can be watched below.

 

What exactly is this project about?

NEON is the idea of Samsung researcher Pranav Mistry. The project emerged out of STAR Labs – Samsung Technology and Advanced Research Labs – and is funded by Samsung, but it’s not actually a Samsung company.

The NEON project is realistic human avatars that are computationally generated and can interact with people in real-time. At this point, each NEON is created from footage of an actual person that is fed into a machine-learning model. A Neon is meant to mimic real human appearance and emotions with its own personality and aptitude to behave like humans. Avatars can also remember and learn.

According to Pranav Mistry, NEON isn’t meant to replace Samsung’s digital assistant Bixby. What is more, it won’t be implemented in Samsung products and NEON operates independently.

 

Examples of the NEON’s application

Each NEON avatar can be customized for different tasks and is able to respond to queries with the latency of less than a few milliseconds. They’re not intended to be just visual skins for AI assistants but put to more varying uses instead. If we are to believe STAR Labs CEO Pranav Mistry, in the near future everyone will be able to license or subscribe to a NEON. The roles can be different: a service representative, a financial advisor, a healthcare provider, or a concierge. The founder also assures that NEONs will work as TV anchors, spokespeople, or movie actors. They can simply be companions and friends if people only would want it.

The first wave of Neons are modeled after real people.
Source: https://www.neon.life/

 

NEONs will work as TV anchors, spokespeople, or movie actors.
Source: https://www.neon.life/

 

What technology is behind it?

There are two main technologies on which NEON is based. The first is Core R3, which stands for reality, real-time and responsiveness. Core R3 is a kind of the graphics engine that powers avatars natural movements, expressions and speech. The second technology is Spectra, which is responsible for implementing artificial intelligence solutions. By this, the creator means intelligence, learning, emotions, and memory. Spectra is not ready for launch yet, but the company says it will present the technology later this year. At the moment it is still being developed.

Neon’s Core R3 graphics engine demonstrated at CES 2020.
Source: https://www.cnet.com/news/samsung-neon-artificial-humans-are-confusing-everyone-we-set-record-straight/

 

What about the uncanny valley?

When NEON avatars can become real comrades in everyday life, one should ask oneself whether the fact that they are so realistic is not a problem. This is specifically about the phenomenon of the uncanny valley, the scientific hypothesis telling that a robot that looks or functions like a human being causes the observers to feel unpleasant or even disgusting. When some people are wondering how STAR Labs has worked out every detail, others feel at least uncomfortable.

 

Why is everyone disappointed?

NEON is like a new kind of life, There are millions of species on our planet and we hope to add one more – this is what we heard from STAR Labs CEO Pranav Mistry before the CES 2020 presentation. It is no wonder that nobody got into awe when it turned out that NEON is just a highly detailed digital avatar. In addition, the demo presented at the show was fully controlled by people from STAR Labs. All the media hype made everyone wait impatiently for the show to finally find out that NEON still has a lot of work to do on its business.

It remains to not believe the haters because NEON avatars look really good and the potential of the project is certainly there. Thus, the final version of the STAR Labs venture has not come and we shouldn’t believe all the media reports. It will soon be clear whether a company can combine two ambitious technologies – the avatars and the AI – together.

 

Do you see a practical application of Samsung’s NEON in the near future? Would you feel comfortable if your teacher wasn’t a real person but Samsung’s NEON?

 

References:

[1] https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/7/21051390/samsung-artificial-human-neon-digital-avatar-project-star-labs

[2] https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/8/21056424/neon-ceo-artificial-humans-samsung-ai-ces-2020

[3] https://www.engadget.com/2020/01/05/samsung-neon-artificial-human-teaser/

[4] https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/06/samsung-neon-artificial-human-announced-at-ces-2020.html

[5] https://www.cnet.com/news/samsung-neon-project-finally-unveiled-humanoid-ai-chatbot-artificial-humans/

[6] https://www.cnet.com/news/samsung-neon-heres-when-well-get-details-on-the-mysterious-ai/

[7] https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/meet-neon-samsungs-new-ai-powered-robot-which-can-converse-sympathise/articleshow/73135240.cms

[8] https://www.livemint.com/companies/people/we-ll-live-in-a-world-where-machines-become-humane-pranav-mistry-11577124133419.html

[9] https://mashable.com/article/samsung-star-labs-neon-ces/?europe=true

[10] https://www.wired.co.uk/article/samsung-neon-digital-avatars

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A World Without Language Barriers? It’s available now for everyone!

Reading Time: 3 minutes


People from the very beginning had one big barrier. It is communicational barrier. There was even a biblical story about Tower of Babel which explains why the world’s peoples speak different languages.

Now this problem can be solved!

Thanks to the latest translating technology and firms such as “Waverly Labs INC” people can easily communicate with each other by using an earphone. But it is not normal earphone. This earphone is something more. It includes a complete system with a world class translation engine.

 

A complete system, including:

  • Pilot earbuds designed with high definition acoustic clarity for top quality audio
  • A companion app to connect the cloud engine with the earbuds and access the Pilot’s suite -of features
  • Translation and interpretation of 15 languages and 42+ dialects
  • Wireless music streaming
  • Voice calls, charging case, and more “- says the producer. 

 

 

The very best advantage of this device is the fact that these earbuds can translate up to 5 different language speaking people into other 5 different languages and it’s all abreast.

These videos below shows how it really works:

 

(with polish speaking journalist)

Due to latest press release!

Waverly Labs was chosen as CES 2019 INNOVATION AWARDS HONOREE.

Andrew Ochoa, The CEO of Waverly Labs, shared the comment about it:

“Pilot was designed to bridge the gap for those suffering with translation barriers in their everyday life. We’re incredibly thrilled to be included with a roster of innovative teams working on award winning technologies.”

What is my view about this?

For me it’s highly advanced big step in translating technology. Nowadays people use their smartphones to communicate. Most of them are using Google Translate app which is, just to be honest, not the best one. Thanks to the Waverly Labs earbuds now we can freely communicate with people and it is still sound naturally. There is no wall between them. By using word of “wall” I meant a smartphone. During the conversation we have to look at it to understand our interlocutor. In a business and social atmosphere, it is not proper to do that. But with the earbud we can easily have an eye contact which can help us in the future. thanks to that simple thing some entrepreneurs can treat us better.

On the other hand, we cannot trust in everything what this device says to us. Some people in the forums says that, theirs devices had the problem with understanding the dialects and languages and it was creating a lot of misunderstandings during the conversation. Other counter argument is that we cannot use these earbuds to translate conversation in really loudly places. The other thing that the Waverly Labs Inc should work on is the accent of the speaking device. IT IS DRAMATICALLY POOR.

To sum up my post. I think we are on a good way to get rid of the problem with the communicational barrier as long as you have $179.00 to spent on it. There are only few things to correct but for this time it will be enough.

Sources:

https://bit.ly/1TcE2qg
https://www.waverlylabs.com

Videos:

https://bit.ly/2cnz6y4
https://bit.ly/2FpxyF5
https://bit.ly/2HeK4c3

Photos:

https://bit.ly/2D9t8zE
https://bit.ly/2Fylssj

author: Michał Żelazo

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