12-01-2021
1 min read
Dasha Fomina
Weekly Digest: Human-Like Robots, Virtual TV Hosts, and Voice Assistant From Disney
Robotics startup offers $200K for the right to use one person’s face and voice
Russian robotics company Promobot, known for producing hyper-realistic, humanlike robots, has made an unusual proposition: in exchange for $200,000 one individual will transfer the rights to their face and voice for use in robot development. The company is developing «a humanoid robot assistant which will work in hotels, shopping malls and other crowded places» and is «seeking a face» to model it after. Via Newsweek.
Interactive voice AI sculpture appears at Smithsonian Art Museum
Produced by artist Suchi Reddy and Amazon Web Services, the new interactive sculpture translates spoken words into colors and lights. Titled “you + me,” the piece is part of the FUTURES exhibit, linking AWS’ voice AI tech to the sculpture, transforming it with every visitor’s description of the future. Via Voicebot.ai.
‘Hey, Disney’ voice assistant is coming to Disneyland hotel rooms in 2022
The voice assistant will be available alongside Alexa in the Walt Disney World room Echo speaker and handle requests ranging from amenities to stories and jokes. Besides, there will be more technology in the park itself, as MagicBand+ wearables will enable visitors to make purchases and use gesture control for better experiences in certain areas. Via Engadget.
Sber unveils virtual human to host a Russian TV show
Russian tech and finance giant Sber created a virtual human to host the Markets and Investor Calendar shows on RBC TV this month. The virtual host Elena was designed by Sber’s subsidiary SberDevices using its new Visper platform for transforming pictures and audio recordings into AI characters that can realistically imitate human beings. Via Voicebot.ai.