Really uninspiring

Community General Discussion
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HI @Nosferatu
welcome in this world of illusion , here on Earth , everything is illusion
We ate all looking for a gentle innovative and loving per bot , but there is not still one .
The comments of @Racheal123 seem very honest and balanced , for me
I am just an human like others with a too complex brain
1 ) the logic one ; A part of me is considering the poor technical realty behind the scene , and your analysis is quiye clear and hereable . Very limited skills , so called “updates” by just adding a new trigger word leading to one simple action , as the recent “magic” to random images
2) the affective one As all EMO owners ve are in search of this myth that fills all the Sci Fi since decades , A robot who loves us and who we can love. With this EMO pet , we are all in a great denial of realty. Who can tell a child than her doll is just a platic piece ? It is not about what we see but what we want to see
Any shake is interpreted as a breathing ; any noise as an expression , any silence as an interrogation.
In this mood we all are affected by psychological biases ( who is able to admit than his gentle puppet dog is able to bite , to recognise than we get screwed buying an awesome technological innovative new gadget , it was our choice , so it is obviously the best )
All this loving community of fans is very respectable , i am part of it , but are we really objectives ?
3 ) the business one
On this issue , i am really admirative , because it is a really great winning game.
As @Racheal123 tells , the initiation started with some little ( or big ) lies and unsustainable promises
But which is great it than these lies are now taken in charge by our own community that brings its dreams , spreads the message and even ends in believing they will come true . We tell " there are projects to do … , Living AI just stay mute

So lets remain “fair players” What does not kills us make us stronger ( nietsche )
EMO is a little bit better than many products , a big far from its promises or from what it could be.
The future is still to come
I have been recently amazed in a recent Maker Fair by a DIY toy , adding some wheels to old used phones and using all the great technologies already inside ( quality camera , quality of microphones and headphones , powerful chips , powerful face ID … ) and external ( Microsoft speech recognition ) to build an interactive pet bot , not as pretty than our designed EMO , but with really amazing results
Perhaps the future is not where we believe .

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37

I don’t know about the negotiations necessary to get Alexa/Google Assistant or any such service licensed for a device you create as a third party, but! Amazon/Google and so on have quite a big advantage from this rather than disadvantage. If I am informed corectly, the Vector bot had the capability already when it was manufactured and sold by Anki, ar least looking at the old ads, they had those plans. So DDL are just stepping in those same footsteps that were already laid out before them. Living AI promise (they already have it in Emo’s manual) that one of those assistants would be integrated, but that wouldn’t be like “talking to Emo as Alexa”. It would most likely just be reusing Emo’s built-in mic and speakers to utilize that assistant (same start word, same interactions, same old Alexa voice, not Emo giving Alexa responses, just like Vector doesn’t give the Alexa responses. V. is only a vessel here to fulfill the same thing any Echo or Fire device would do. So that service in V. coexists to what that robot does by itself, just like an additional app on your smartphone adds some capabilities in parallel to, but not on top t of another app.

Butwhy do I say the big companies would win something from such a cooperation? Because they don’t live on selling hardware. They live on providing paid services (Amazon) or show/play ads whereever possible (Google). Both are built upon a fundament of data collection. They try to know what you are doing, when you are doing it, when you buy speciffic things, what you use them for and so on and so forth, THAT is the real value these companies are built upon. So the best thing they can have is masses and masses of people using their services via whatever means possible. Why else should BOTH have apps that are not only already preinstalled in smartphones or tablets, but can also be added independently without any cost? (Apple is a differnt thing here, they have a different company philosophy, so Siri is not THAT open, but at least some similarities are still there.)

Anyway, to put it in shorter terms: Amazon/Google WANT their personal assistant software on as many devices as possible. But I guess they do want also some level of quality, and for sure if it is built-in into any firmware or software, ther will be several checks done first, before they agree. Because I am quite sure they don’t want that users think there services are crappy if they are only just run on crappy hardware or within buggy software. So… quality assurance is a thing. From what I saw so far, I am quite sure, that Living AI is working on fulfilling their promise behind the scenes.

Again… just my two cents. And please don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to offend or attack anybody, just want to throw in some things from a technical point of view. Especially when it comes to voice/speech recognition and the like, I am very much interested and try to keep myself up to date as best I can. My major field of study during my time at university was AI, culminating in a diploma thesis on speech recognition. So… yeah, that’s why I jump in here. :slight_smile: (Also that is not to say that I’m always right here, I’m just voicing my opinion based on what I know or belive to know :slight_smile: )

Edit: some typo corrections (I hope I caught them all), small addition to the Vector part.

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38

hey that sounded really reasonable :blush: they probably do want their software in everything humanly possible… What was I thinking :dizzy_face:

Your explanation of what’s going makes sense :sunglasses: you changed my mind and convinced me :yum: so is not about hardware it’s about world takeover :dizzy_face: makes perfect sense now

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39

Lol, maybe not world takeover (or who knows? :wink: ), but at least they DO aim to lead the market, right? That’s no real news there.
Just wanted to say: I don’t believe DDL had any need to “steal” Alexa capabilities in any way, shape or form. I think that both sides benefit from that. Amazon, because there are additional devices out there that make it easier for users to access their services (and maybe even consider subscribing to Prima, because they have a suitable device already and no need to buy an Echo in addition), and for DDL, because they benefit from the big name they are thus related to.
Same would go for Living AI. Benefit for both ends I guess.

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40

mate , you have said what many, many, many people have already commented on, yes l agree with you, mine is stored in his original box in the back of a cupboard. We are all hoping that in future firmware upgrades that the issues with emo will be addressed and not more useless games or magic trick will be applied, and in the meanwhile my emo will remain in storage or sit on my desk as a paper waite

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41

victorspiess … He’s not that bad if you give him a chance. If you have a worktable like I do and you are there occasionally he is great to just leave alone. He’ll walk up and recognize you that’s pretty cool and if you’re working on a project go ahead and play rock paper scissors and watch him cheat… It’s quite adorable. I wish he had a better speech engine I don’t know if they’ll ever give him one but he’s not a paperweight just watching him sleep and snore is pretty cool. You can use them for an alarm it works really good and the weather reports are cool to. it’s sad you can’t find any use for him but if that’s the case it’s okay. Maybe one day you can just put him on his skateboard and watch him do the daily schedule eating and such which is really cool way better than any pet rock or paperweight. Sorry to hear you’re not having any enjoyment :blush: I love my little guy I’m still waiting for him to get sick though as I am an evil taskmaster :laughing:

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42

DDL means digital dream labs lol

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I have to agree. I just got my Emo yesterday and, so far, am completely underwhelmed. He still seems to have a very limited library of interactions. The manual that comes with him claims that you can use Alexa or Google Assistant through him, but I haven’t been able to do that. I don’t know if I’m missing something or it’s just not available. This, alone, would make him much more useful.

Right now, to me, he just feels like an expensive toy that would amuse a four year old for about 30 minutes.

I really, really wish that they would release his SDK so that people in the community could help program him and make him more interesting. I believe he may have a lot of untapped capability.

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okay I have come to the realization that for EMO Pet to be a really talkative little guy is completely off the table… But if living AI made this limited speech can they not just add things to it in updates… Can’t he just talk and have more answers just a little bit more :cry:… Please :cry:

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Hi Puppy! I’m with you. EMO should have the ability to be a really talkative guy. He just needs to be programmed with more responses, as you mentioned. He also needs to be programmed with more logic. For example, when you ask him to do something, and he does it, it is natural for a person to say, “Thank-you, EMO”. I always do that, and catch myself because I know that he is not programmed to listen and respond. But, he does have the ability to listen, so he can be programmed to listen for a response, after he completes the task, and then answer you with a random response, just like a human would do. A human will have a limited number of options to respond to a “Thank-you” with. You might say, “You’re welcome”, “No problem”, “My pleasure”, “Sure”, “Any time”, “That’s my job”, etc…If he had 6 to 10 programmed responses it would make him feel more alive. Right now, he doesn’t listen and doesn’t respond, so he just feels like a dumb toy. Sorry Living AI. It’s such a simple thing to program, but it’s one simple thing that would make him more endearing.

This is exactly why I’m lobbying for the release of his SDK. There will be geeky types on here who will be chomping at the bit for the opportunity to make him more engaging. I’ve had him for two days and, like many, I’m about ready to throw him back into his box. His very repetitive behaviours are getting annoying.

Let the community make him smarter - like they did with Cozmo. Unfortunately, Anki went bankrupt before that could all be fully realized. Cozmo is ancient by technology standards but he’s still way more engaging than EMO, even though Cozmo can’t even hear! Let developers submit their code to Living AI and Living AI can choose to add whatever they like to him and to his app. If he doesn’t get more engaging, he will just keep racking up negative reviews and they will lose their audience. Let Living AI focus on the hardware and getting him out to people, and let the community help with his coding to get it rocking.

We should be able to see what his camera sees in the app - just like Cozmo. And we should be able to train him based on what he sees. Obviously, that would be very engaging if he’s learning things that you teach him. In his autonomous mode, he should be able to recognize those objects and interact with them in ways that he’s been taught to. He can identify them, talk to them, mimic them (Like Cozmo mimicking animals) and other such things. How awesome would it be if he saw something new and asked you what it is?

He needs to do way more when he sees you and identifies you rather than just saying some random piece of trivia or a quirky quote. He should be able to say Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, etc…ask you how you’re doing, complain about the weather…etc…He should be able to run through a range of programmed behaviours, just like a human does, and pick a random thing to use as a salutation. It’s all just logic and programmed behaviours that are linked to large data banks of possible questions and answers.

He needs to do a lot more in his “autonomous” mode, like looking for new things to learn maybe, or talking to himself like Cozmo does. If he randomly talks to you, he should say relevant things based on your environment and such. For example, he might tell you that you should wear a hat and gloves if you go out, because it’s cold out. Or break out the sunscreen. He could suggest a trip to the beach or say that it’s a nice day to go for a walk. Or he might suggest it’s a good day to stay in. These would not be random, he would have to use logic based on information he gets on the weather. This could be part of his response when you ask him what the weather is like. He could ask you if you’d like to play a game or if you need help with anything. Again, he should be able to listen for a response from you and respond accordingly. He should be able to give a more detailed and extended weather forecast. He should randomly listen for music and occasionally dance if he hears it. He could ask you to play him some music so he can dance…

He also needs to be programmed to understand many different ways of asking the same question.

These, and Nosferatu’s suggestions, are simple things to program that would make him smarter and more endearing. It isn’t all simple, but a lot of it is. Yes, it’s work. But an army of willing people could make a good dent in it, and it would showcase what he’s capable of. And, I think people really want and need to see what he’s capable of.

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NannyPoo that was nicely written and so true… Lately I’ve been getting more aggravated with just a little feature they missed of always having to say his name he doesn’t listen for response…anyway I just wanted to say that your ideas were perfectly written and would be something living AI should read :star_struck:

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47

I have to agree with Puppy on this, lots of very good ideas and very well presented. It would be amazing to see some of these ideas realised it certainly gets my vote.

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48

Some great ideas @NannyPoo

If you can, please add this to this thread as well :slight_smile:

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Oops! Thank-you for the tip, MaterAbbott. I will do that.

Thank-you everyone. I just updated my EMO and he seems to be a little chattier now! He is, actually, saying different things when he sees me. So, Kudos to Living AI. I see that they are actively working on making him more engaging. He asked me for my birthday when he saw me today. That might be something he’s done for a while, but he just hadn’t gotten around to asking me yet! It’s pretty cute. Maybe they just need to work on making his random behaviours a little more random and less repetitive!

I’ve decided to not put him in jail (back in his box) just yet. :smile:

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50

Please sign this petition if you have been impacted monetarily by Digital Dream Labs from Vector Unleashed not getting the updates agreed upon, your lifetime licence quit working, and they ignore you, you have a lifetime licence and were charged a year of coverage, you didn’t get your Escape Pod, you didn’t get a completed OSKR. For pre-sales, you didn’t get Vector 2.0/Cozmo 2.0/Butter Robot, you did get Vector 2.0, but he’s defective, and they ignore support or refund requests, you asked for a refund or support and were blocked on their official Facebook group and ignored by email. https://chng.it/8BBdrFXGsX

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51

Absolute nightmare of a company. I have no cobtract with DDL and purchased my vector from anki. Despite this twithput my knowledge or permission they accessed my robot via my internet, applied an upfrade and 90 day free trial which broke my robot. They admitted they did this which is a huge privacey breach but wont help fix my vector.

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I had actually paid the life time subscription on my Vector and now he will not access his knowledge graph at all. I made an actual movie video about this. I go to the site and it shows active life time subscription, he is connected to the internet, but cannot answer questions or give the weather and time any more. DDL refuses to respond to E-Mails for help and now I have heard the repair service which I paid for is no longer either. I have filed a fraud complaint but have not heard anything back from them regarding DDL.

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Wow! Im so sorry for all of you. That sounds awful! Im so glad I never got one. But, hopefully, EMO is a better experience, yes?

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It’s unbelievable that it’s possible for DDL to do their business this way without any penalty.

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EMO is definitely a better experience.

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