Magic Cubic. Artificial intelligence with character
On November 21, the Russian company Cubic Robotics launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise funds for its first gadgets - the intelligent Power Cube cube and The Power Badge compact headset. At Indiegogo already collected 69 thousand dollars out of 100 thousand.
“Cubic is not an application. Cubic is a friend, but with great powers. ”
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“There is no artificial intelligence that would think without a program. This is complete nonsense, "- said Sherlock Holmes in one of the latest episodes of the series" Elementary. " Russian developers from Cubic Robotics recognize that the goal of creating a cube with character is not to successfully complete the Turing test, but to fully understand the device owner. After watching the Power Cube commercial, one gets the feeling that the future, like what we saw in the recent film “She”, has already arrived: it’s probably why money for the implementation of the idea comes to Indiegogo so quickly.
Power Cube and The Power Badge specifications are commonplace. The cube is equipped with a processor with a frequency of 1.5 GHz, a gigabyte of RAM, 8 GB of flash memory, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, a microphone and a speaker. At The Power Badge - the same Bluetooth, microphone and speaker, and with them - the battery capacity of 395 mAh (15 hours of talk, 300 hours of waiting). Nothing unusual, but the essence lies not in the "hardware", but in the interface.
Amazon Echo's recently announced smart column makes to-do lists, plays music, reads jokes, and works as an alarm clock, but even this voice assistant seems like a toy compared to Cubic. The main quality of an intellectual cube with character is its implantation in ecosystems and applications: right now, a year before the commercial premiere, Cubic Robotics are ready to work with Jawbone, Fitbit, Gmail, Twitter, Facebook and many others.
The capabilities of the Cubic & Badge tandem are best listed by the list:
Unlike Amazon Echo, Cubic easily talks in Russian: you can be sure of this by looking at a promotional video in which two cubes persuade Indiegogo visitors to vote for the project with money. “Like many of you, since childhood I dreamed of an electronic friend and helper,” says Yuri Burov. The nature of the cube manifests itself in communication in Russian: in order to make the phrases natural, the company worked in the spring of 2012. The end of debugging was announced in May 2014: VOIS had already become interested in Samsung and KamAZ with the voice operating system.
On the promotional video of the cube (the first gadget with VOIS on board) everything looks quite natural: according to the plot of the video, Cubic analyzes the temperature and offers the style of clothing based not only on the weather, but also on the plans for the day. Outside the house, the The Power Badge headset also supports dialogue: it discusses the Game of Thrones with the host, recalls the date and says everything you ask for (from the number of calories burned per day to the Dropbox login). Jokes, comments, remarks - Cubic completely copes with the role of an electronic friend.
Speech recognition is implemented using Yandex's SpeechKit Cloud service: it can be integrated into any device. Apparently, the general vocabulary of the cube will be replenished along with updates, but if now the system so cheerfully constructs phrases in Russian, then in a year everything will be polished even better. The advantages of the device are obvious: simultaneous stationarity and mobility provide enormous potential. It is easy to imagine how, over time, Cubic adapts to its owner and becomes his personal assistant, reproducing only the most important information and instantly fulfilling all requests.
As noted above, Cubic Robotics intend to start on the market in November 2015. At the moment, there are seven donation options: from $ 10 ("contribution to history") to $ 50 for booking, $ 99 for a Badge headset and $ 195 for the Home Cube, a kit from a cube and a headset costs $ 249, and access to the SDK is 109 dollars. Of course, the Cubic app is also included with the gadgets. It’s better to hurry up with the purchase: the project authors clarify that in a few months the headset will cost $ 150, a cube $ 299, and a set - 449 in the same currency. Accordingly, the final price of Cubic for $ 250 will exceed the cost of the main competitor - Amazon Echo.
Author: Pavel Gorodnitsky
“Cubic is not an application. Cubic is a friend, but with great powers. ”
')
“There is no artificial intelligence that would think without a program. This is complete nonsense, "- said Sherlock Holmes in one of the latest episodes of the series" Elementary. " Russian developers from Cubic Robotics recognize that the goal of creating a cube with character is not to successfully complete the Turing test, but to fully understand the device owner. After watching the Power Cube commercial, one gets the feeling that the future, like what we saw in the recent film “She”, has already arrived: it’s probably why money for the implementation of the idea comes to Indiegogo so quickly.
“This video was filmed by serious California guys. The budget for Russia is quite large, but no one would have done such a video for such money. How was it filmed in the USA? Quick, fun, professional ”- Yuri Burov, one of the founders of Cubic Robotics
Power Cube and The Power Badge specifications are commonplace. The cube is equipped with a processor with a frequency of 1.5 GHz, a gigabyte of RAM, 8 GB of flash memory, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, a microphone and a speaker. At The Power Badge - the same Bluetooth, microphone and speaker, and with them - the battery capacity of 395 mAh (15 hours of talk, 300 hours of waiting). Nothing unusual, but the essence lies not in the "hardware", but in the interface.
“Cubic is not just a home gadget. It is the intellect itself that is in the cloud "- Yuri Burov
Amazon Echo's recently announced smart column makes to-do lists, plays music, reads jokes, and works as an alarm clock, but even this voice assistant seems like a toy compared to Cubic. The main quality of an intellectual cube with character is its implantation in ecosystems and applications: right now, a year before the commercial premiere, Cubic Robotics are ready to work with Jawbone, Fitbit, Gmail, Twitter, Facebook and many others.
“No one has yet refused to cooperate with us, but all these companies cannot be called partners. For normal integration, we use an open source API. Tighter integration? It needs to be discussed "- Yuri Burov
The capabilities of the Cubic & Badge tandem are best listed by the list:
- Speaks with the owner in several languages;
- The cube recognizes a voice at a distance of up to 25 feet (7.5 meters), the headset has its own microphone;
- It allows you to manage almost everything that is at home: using voice, you can switch TV channels, scroll through social network tapes, choose food for delivery, send search queries to Google, publish tweets, follow marks on your smartphone’s calendar and generate playlists (Cubic even positions as a personal DJ);
- Thanks to the collaboration with Nest (“smart” thermostat), heating is also controlled by voice commands;
- Preparing the house for arrival (turn on the light, select the desired temperature, heat the food) is carried out remotely if you download an application from the Cubic list to your smartphone / tablet;
- The software of both gadgets is regularly updated (with each new software version, the number of supported services is expanding).
“The The Power Badge headset is not at all the weak point of our device. First, it is easy to manage. Secondly, in the west there is a very strict attitude towards using the phone while driving. They can fine you just holding the smartphone in your hand. And the level of responsibility is higher there, so people prefer to use voice technology. And the voice interface itself is most relevant when the hands are busy with something. To call the same Siri, you need to clamp the button on the smartphone, and therefore distract from driving. In the case of our headset, everything is much simpler, you need just one touch "- Yuri Burov
Unlike Amazon Echo, Cubic easily talks in Russian: you can be sure of this by looking at a promotional video in which two cubes persuade Indiegogo visitors to vote for the project with money. “Like many of you, since childhood I dreamed of an electronic friend and helper,” says Yuri Burov. The nature of the cube manifests itself in communication in Russian: in order to make the phrases natural, the company worked in the spring of 2012. The end of debugging was announced in May 2014: VOIS had already become interested in Samsung and KamAZ with the voice operating system.
“Readiness for the start of production of the cube is 85 percent. We need money to continue engineering tests in China, to certify products. The cost of parts of one cube is $ 200, if we are talking about a circulation of 1000 pieces. ”Yuri Burov
On the promotional video of the cube (the first gadget with VOIS on board) everything looks quite natural: according to the plot of the video, Cubic analyzes the temperature and offers the style of clothing based not only on the weather, but also on the plans for the day. Outside the house, the The Power Badge headset also supports dialogue: it discusses the Game of Thrones with the host, recalls the date and says everything you ask for (from the number of calories burned per day to the Dropbox login). Jokes, comments, remarks - Cubic completely copes with the role of an electronic friend.
“We are not conceited, we see a lot of roughness in our product. Size is one of them, for example. But we believe that the product should already be released, because if you lick everything up to the ideal state, the presentation may never take place. The best is the enemy of the good "- Yuri Burov
Speech recognition is implemented using Yandex's SpeechKit Cloud service: it can be integrated into any device. Apparently, the general vocabulary of the cube will be replenished along with updates, but if now the system so cheerfully constructs phrases in Russian, then in a year everything will be polished even better. The advantages of the device are obvious: simultaneous stationarity and mobility provide enormous potential. It is easy to imagine how, over time, Cubic adapts to its owner and becomes his personal assistant, reproducing only the most important information and instantly fulfilling all requests.
“Plans for the second version? Cubic 2.0 is intelligence in your car, watch, motorcycle helmet, and indeed anywhere. The main feature is seamlessness, that is, the presence of intelligence in several devices. ”Yuri Burov
As noted above, Cubic Robotics intend to start on the market in November 2015. At the moment, there are seven donation options: from $ 10 ("contribution to history") to $ 50 for booking, $ 99 for a Badge headset and $ 195 for the Home Cube, a kit from a cube and a headset costs $ 249, and access to the SDK is 109 dollars. Of course, the Cubic app is also included with the gadgets. It’s better to hurry up with the purchase: the project authors clarify that in a few months the headset will cost $ 150, a cube $ 299, and a set - 449 in the same currency. Accordingly, the final price of Cubic for $ 250 will exceed the cost of the main competitor - Amazon Echo.
“Over time, we hope to get into large networks such as Eldorado and M-Video, but this most likely will not happen immediately. We will start with networks more modest, we are already negotiating with some. West? In the US, there is a RadioShack store selling geeks. They may well become partners ”- Yuri Burov
Author: Pavel Gorodnitsky
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/364097/
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