Interactive Desktop "Persocom"

[MarkF]

I don't know how many of you are familiar with the Manga-style comic book series, 'Chobits'. It's a series based on an android-type machine, known as a "Persocom". These persocoms are made to outwardly look as similar to human beings as possible, most often made to resemble females. They are useful in that, while they walk, talk, reason, and do everything but eat and use the 'facilities', they also do everything that a computer does (Persocom = Personal Computer, or Person Compter).

This got me to thinking: though persocoms are not yet possible with our existing technology, what about an animated 2D version for a computer's desktop? I know that with all the technology buffs on this forum, someone could create one. It looks wonderful in my head: the program would come with mutiple visual options (as in what it would look like, male/female, most physical attributes), a voice of it's own so it can talk to you with preprogrammed sentences and phrases (downloadable from the official website), and could assist with many programs, like word processing (with a built-in spell checker/grammar checker/thesaurus, etc, which is "universal" to all text fields), an alarm that can be used to alert you of important things on your calendar, incoming email, and many other things.

Am I just nuts in thinking this is possible, or does someone out there think it can be pulled off? And, on the tail of that thought, can someone within this forum do it? I'd be glad to bash minds with someone who has the technical knowhow (and time, sheesh) to undertake this project, to share ideas and the like.

Any takers?

~Mark

[Yan Wang]

I heard that there were already available strippers for your desktop... programmers have odd jobs these days, eh?

[MarkF]

Not strippers...*sigh*...I knew someone would make a childish remark like that at some point. I mean somethign useful, that might be able to fill in some of the programming that Windows leaves out.

[Matt Attallah]

good stuff "Mon"!! LOL!

[robot180]

I saw this thing at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas...that was like these 3d glasses that you put on with wire (USB) that connects to your computer. It gives 3d images from these special image files, that are basically two images shown at the same time. The glasses switch between the two images very quickly, in fact, to fast to notice. I got to try it and the examples that they used were pictures of women, with almost no clothes on, I guess to persuade the company represenatives of various companies to buy the product. It was a full 3d effect from almost a pair of sun glasses.

[MarkF]

Not to be a party pooper, but let's not stray from the subject here.

[tatsak42]

It's like Clippit on steroids!!

Anyway, it sounds like a fun project to do (though not to use, see my earlier sentence), if I were better at coding, I would try. I'm too busy learning OO programming in PHP to code my own BB

[Trashed20]

i love chobits.

on a note more on topic, have you ever heard of bonzi buddy? hehe cause thats basically what you described..

[JVN]

Originally posted by Trashed20
i love chobits.

on a note more on topic, have you ever heard of bonzi buddy? hehe cause thats basically what you described..

Except Bonzai Buddy comes with a pile of Spyware, free of charge!

[Madison]

So, am I the only one a little creeped out by man's incessant desire to make their computers into sexually objectified, submissive women?

[MarkF]

Krass, grow up. This is a perfectly reasonable and mature post, perhaps you shouldn't be posting on it.

I tried the bonzai buddy...but it's a monkey. I dunno, maybe that's why, but I never quite managed to get used to it. I think that alot of people, myself included, would be more comfortable with something that looks human, do you know what I mean? Be it male, female, or whatever. Perhaps someone coule get a hold of the scripts for the Bonzai Buddy (with the creator's permission, of course!) and altet them slightly, giving a different appearance, and adding the audio stuff? I dunno the techs of it since I'm far from a programming buff, but maybe someone else here does.

[Madison]

Originally posted by MarkF
Krass, grow up. This is a perfectly reasonable and mature post, perhaps you shouldn't be posting on it.

I'm sorry.

Let's review. You'd like to develop software that, among other things -

• has an exceptionally customizable human appearance
• serves you

This isn't creepy, how? Forgive me if I can't ignore the implications of trying to create, in any capacity, a facsimile of a person that exists only to serve you and complete your menial tasks.

Programs that perform spell check, keep track of appointments, and otherwise organize your life are one thing. Personifying them is just a bit too much, and really, quite strange.

In the future, I'd appreciate if you left the meaningless insults to another forum. It makes what tiny justification you might have, and what little public opinion -- in the form of, "Oh, it's harmless," -- go away even quicker.

[Matt Krass]

M's got a point, it's pretty creepy, I mean a utility is one thing but I don't want my computer to be friends with me. Also, from a resource standpoint AI coding can really eat CPU power and I don't wanna hear about "oh I have seven million gigajiggahertz!". Doesn't matter, there's a reason you need high performance systems for gaming, between keep a good clean image stable (which uses even more resources when it shares the screen) and the logistics behind it plus normal activities you're running low on resources. Also, you have consider the ethical side of this which I'm not getting in to because that's a whole different level altogether.

[FotoPlasma]

Why does this remind me of something Microsoft has already done?

Oh. This is why:

http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=38449
http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=948133

Sounds like a dumb idea, to me.

[Ian W.]

this sounds kinda dumb, only because when i used to use windows, i was always trying to kill the $@#$@#$@#$@# things that popped up on the screen and tried to help me (IE, clippit).

if you need a animated human (with or without clothes) to tell you when you have an appointment, i think you should work more on getting a bit organized, than trying to make something that already exists (bonzi buddy).

hell, a PDA is more useful. my dad has a Palm V, whenever he has something, it beeps, he'll pull it out, and go "ok, i have to go to bob's house and help with his computer at 12." plus, a PDA you can bring with you, a stupid little program that wastes resources can stay on your computer, which doesn't do you much good if you're at school / work / out / etc.

you gotta think about what the benefits and the wastes are, and this idea just has no good points that I can see, and if it does have any, the definitely don't outweigh the pointlessness of it.