Benjamin Franklin Synthetic Interview

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Benjamin Franklin Synthetic Interview

• Marcos Amadeo
• Allison Styer
• Advisors Don Marinelli, Scott Stevens

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Background

• Governor Ed Rendell is sponsoring this project.
• Installed in the lobby space of the Lights of
  Liberty show.
• To increase flow of people during the day to
  their gift shop, increase ticket sales.

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Lights of Liberty

• Grab your headset. Were joining a Revolution!
• 45 minute walking tour of historic buildings with
  original paintings projected.
• 3d sound, fog, lighting, voice talent from Walter
  Cronkite, Whoopi Goldberg, Charlton Heston.

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What is Synthetic Interview?

• Software technology that allows a computer
  database to act like a human personality and
  interact with a person in real time.
• The program attempts to match its input to a
  pre-constructed list of possible questions a
  guest may ask.
• The database question with the highest score
  (matching keywords) will be chosen and the
  appropriate video answer will be played.
• This technology was generated by CMU researchers
  and has given life to a myriad of characters from
  Albert Einstein to a robotic talk show host.

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Demo

• See Marcos as Ben Franklin!

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Our Ben

• Ben Franklin aka Ralph Archbold
• The Official Ben Franklin of Philadelphia,
  University of Pennsylvania, Freedoms Foundation
  and the Franklin Institute.
• Has been portraying Ben for over 25 years.

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Our proposals

• The Painting
• The Ghost
• Special thanks to Eric Brown

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Our story

• What will bring families across town? Bens
  Ghost!
• Come chat with the ghost of Ben Franklin about
  any topic from the Constitution to French
  women!
• Type on an old typewriter then send the letter
  by mail (Ben was the first Postmaster General for
  the colonies) to his ghost.
• The ghost appears to answer the question, then
  blows out a candle and dissipates.

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Possible implementations

• Exploring Peppers Ghost

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Possible implementations

• Exploring OPD technology

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Possible implementations

• OCR handwriting technology

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Our Schedule
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Questions?

• Fish and Visitors stink after three days
• Well done is better than well said.
• When the wine enters, out goes the Truth.
• Paintings and Fightings are best seen at a
  distance.
• Old boys have their playthings as well as young
  ones, the difference is in the price.
• From Poor Richards Almanac by B. Franklin