Benjamin Franklin Synthetic Interview Marcos Amadeo Allison Styer Advisors: Don Marinelli, Scott Stevens
Jan 15, 2016
Benjamin Franklin Synthetic Interview
Marcos AmadeoAllison Styer
Advisors: Don Marinelli, Scott Stevens
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.
Lights of Liberty
• Grab your headset. We’re 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.
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.
Our Ben
• Ben Franklin aka Ralph Archbold
• The “Official Ben Franklin” of Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania, Freedom’s Foundation and the Franklin Institute.
• Has been portraying Ben for over 25 years.
Our proposals
• The “Painting”
• The “Ghost”
~ Special thanks to Eric Brown ~
Our story
• What will bring families across town? – Ben’s 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.
Possible implementations
• Exploring Pepper’s Ghost
Possible implementations
• Exploring OPD technology
Possible implementations
• OCR – handwriting technology
Our Schedule
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 Richard’s Almanac by B. Franklin