14 DAY TRIAL // Even if up until now a world where humans had been driven extinct by a new race of machines was to be found only in Sci-Fi flicks or novels, it would seem that this horrific image might, at some point, turn into a harsh reality. And the first people to experience this tragedy might actually be those people who feed us with the latest news/personal experiences/rumors/etc. on a daily basis (yes, I'm referring to bloggers), since the Japanese company NEC has announced the development of a very innovative automatic multimedia blog creation system, which has been embedded into the company's own personal assistance robot, the PaPeRo.
The system is initialized when a user begins a conversation with PaPeRo, regarding the events of their day, which the system then records and analyzes. After completing this operation, the PaPeRo searches for suitable multi-media content on the Internet, including images, illustrations and music, which are automatically uploaded and edited along with the video recording on the user's blog.
According to the company, the system has been developed by integrating large-vocabulary, continuous speech recognition technology, which converts the speech content of the video message into text and extracts important keywords, as well as natural language and text retrieval technology, which enables searching of contents on the Internet.
Here is a list containing the most important features and specs of the PaPeRo itself:
- dimensions: 385mm x 248 mm x 245 mm; - weight: 5.0 kg; - continuous operation time: 2-3 hours; - battery recharge time: 2-3 hours; - features: a built-in Internet wireless modem handset; - interface: USB 2.0; - microphones: for detecting the direction of the sound, as well as for recognizing certain sounds; - includes: a video camera with CCD sensor; - sensors: ultrasonic, step height, elevation.
Although the blogging PaPeRo is a very interesting invention, I seriously doubt that it will ever be a major hit. It will probably increase its capabilities as a personal assistant, being able to update one's personal blog or online community page with great ease, but that's about it. I mean, really popular bloggers base their success on their sense of humor, and since even Lt.Commander Data from Star Trek had some problems in this area, PaPeRo will certainly not do any better.
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