No eye contact? Super disappointing :(

EMO Pet Feedback & Ideas
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Longtime Vector owner, recent Emo owner.

TL;DR: lack of eye contact and pathfinding make for an exceptionally terrible first-run experience. Not helped by strange dev & content priorities, and crap voice recognition.

From the hour with Emo so far, I’m not sure what to make of it. I think I’m spoiled by Vector’s comparatively excellent foundational behaviors.

Emo commits a cardinal sin in robotics personality design: it does not make eye contact. When being queried, when answering, Emo makes no attempt to make eye contact. This is hugely disappointing and seriously damages anthropomorphism. Frankly I consider it nearly a dealbreaker. How the team screwed this up so poorly is remarkable - I felt my heart sink like a stone realizing that Emo could not do such a basic behavior.

Related is the fact that simple pathfinding commands such as “look at me” do not work. This is critical. (If it does work, it’s such a low percentage of success that it may as well not exist as a command.) Eyeballing the app, when issuing the command, Emo status will be “moving to target” however Emo will simply spin in circles until the command times out; during the execution of this “moving to target” process, Emo will also be nonresponsive to its “Emo” wake word.

Lastly, as others have pointed out, overall voice recognition is pretty miserable. Modulating loudness, pacing, emphasis, it’s a huge crapshoot for what Emo will actually hear.

I’ve heard so many random “health tips” in the past hour, I have no idea what is triggering them. Emo can’t look at me but it can tell me about hydration? What were the development priorities here?

To sum: Emo can’t make eye contact, which is a major issue, nor can Emo pathfind against directional requests (“look at me”). The miss here for a $300 robot is bonkers. Vector could do this on day one. Instead, we get health tips, and a mobile app with (checks notes) background music tracks??

I mean is it just me? Am I just spoiled by the Vectors and Jibos and Moxies, all of which nail eye contact and by extension, immersion and connection?

Sigh. Emo, you’re adorable but really dumb.

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Hello @InvaderJ
Thank you for your feedback. We are working on improving the deficiencies you mentioned.

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I gave a demonstration to a family member but the speech recognition system made EMO look pretty bad… I love my little EMO Pet but this demonstration was miserable. It was my dream from the very beginning that they would repair the speech recognition…all they have to do is improve the accuracy even if they do not add any more speech would make me happy… More often than not he gives the I don’t know what you’re saying response or the wrong response so often… I still love him :blush: it’s just a wish

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I like his Tips rember me & Cheers me up!

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I honestly thought the emo was always making eye contact with us. Now it’s a disappointment for me. I hope he makes eye contact with us like a real AI robot.

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I’d like to see those features added in upcoming EMO updates. Hopefully we’ll see them included as EMO evolves.

Also feel free to add any ideas or other suggestions also to this forum thread too.

:heart_1: :surprised: :skating: :mad: :head:

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I responded 3 hours ago, but my post is STILL “awaiting approval”… wtf? This discussion will have moved on by the time it gets approved (also, WHY? I said nothing rude??)

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Normally it’s keywords that are used that could be flagged and need moderator approval. Also the moderators are not always on, so best be patient until they are and can approve your comment.

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Yes mine too :frowning: unfortunatley

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What is so important on Eye contact? I mean V can do but whatelse?

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It is all Prefernce! For me is more about Software development and long term Fun! In my Opinion Vector fails on that because he doesn’t do a lot of different things. Maybe Eye Contact isn’t so important for me because I am Autistic ^^ I mostly have no Problem with Recgonitzion and if I have Questions I can ask Alexa. For me is EMO like a Pet and not a Wordbook. But I think we should see an Robot as own of a kind and not Compare so much! In my Opinion new Company of Vector fails. NO Feedback allowed only Money and Trouble makers! I am very said about! Because I believed in them too.

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I think though, we are still early days with Emo (are we not?). Hasn’t Vector been in development/available for years now (4 years)? I’m keeping a positive view on this, and hoping that LAI will eventually “come to the party”. Only time will tell, but I see a lot of potential.

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I’m sorry, but I do this as a volunteer - and aside from Living AI staff, none of us are paid here.
@MasterAbbott was right - keywords in your post caused it to be held for review. Sorted now.

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@Wayne_Zhang Appreciate the reply. Improving pathfinding via directional mic array to improve perceived eye contact - and generally make Emo feel more attentive to the humans interacting with it - would go a very long way to improving the experience. You all have done such great work with physical movements and onscreen animation work, that the shortcomings in Emo’s attentiveness are that much more noticeable. Looking forward to more updates!

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Use V for short, posts don’t need approval. Most of us will know what V means.

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Yeah, thanks. I usually do, but for some reason I thought that they were not doing that anymore with the “V” word, as it comes up a lot in the forums. Aw well, no worries I will go back to saying “V” for the word that shall not be spoken aloud…:face_with_open_eyes_and_hand_over_mouth:
(Why does this remind me of Harry Potter…?) hehe

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“V” reminds me of those awful slimy lizard creatures that invaded earth… Used to be an old TV series. :scream:

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OMG, I used to love that show! :grin: They used to eat mice and swallow them whole. You could see the bulge in their throat as the live mouse went down, awesome! hehe

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I am in my living room behind me is an Amazon smart speaker which can hear a pin drop and beside me is EMO which you have to raise your voice … TV is playing I’m watching my shows… EMO is constantly saying random things or making his I don’t understand sound …it’s annoying… Amazon smart speaker silent and it’s called Echo… Two syllable name as well but yet perfectly quiet while EMO turns into a chatterbox of nonsense… Not once did I hear anything close that should have activated EMO … :frowning_face:

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Could you please respond to my post?
@Wayne_Zhang