Visual DataFlex’s flexibility allows HuMimics to design an artificial intelligence entity that provides a real interface solution for today’s businesses.

Industry
“Intelligent” Software Applications

Company Profile
HuMimics, Inc., a newly formed unit of the TASQbase Technology Alliance (TTA) is located in Norcross, Georgia. TTA represents a consultancy of computer software and systems engineering talent with broad abilities in advanced program development for applications interface, database design, device interface, virtual process design, mass storage management, and expert systems technology.

Background
TTA’s work in the area of expert systems technology and Internet-based information delivery systems spawned a research project in early 1999 to explore more effective ways for computer applications to interface with the end user. The new methodology for a more human-like communication with computers started to evolve in the third quarter of that year. HuMimics’ research group dubbed this methodology Mimetic Synthesis. HuMimics, Inc., is the vessel that has been designated to bring this new technology to the marketplace.

Issues
With the world moving towards a more digital society, the need for an integrated human-like interaction with computer applications is obvious. Such an interface would make applications much more user friendly therefore providing a new generation of applications, maximizing ease of use for information delivery, on-line customer service, Intranet management, and technology-based education.

Solution
HuMimics, through years of combined research, has developed an artificial intelligence application, using Mimetic Synthesis. The neural-net core that we have developed has the ability to perform and react to user inquiries in the same manner that a real person would perform. The end product called Assimilated Applications for Mimetic Synthesis (AAMS) integrates speech recognition, text-to-speech output, desktop control software (so the droid can execute any resident application), and a pleasant animated 3D human head which moves it’s lips when it speaks. The AAMS product allows the user to interact with the computer in much the same way that the user would interact with a fellow human being. The product brings “brains” and human qualities to every-day computer tasks.

The core of this technology revolves around the powerful development tools and the robust neural-net like data structure provided by the VDF6 product. In the HuMimics Development Lab the respect for the VDF technology has increased ten fold as the mimetics droid project has advanced. The Data Flex product family and it’s modular expandability has been nicknamed by the HuMimics science team as a “fluid development environment” offering dynamically flexible approaches to complex programming challenges.

VDF provides the power to build applications with the complexity and resource accessibility of C++ in a fraction of the development time. This allows us to prove new concepts and solve specific application needs on a per customer basis by developing feature unique plug-ins while allowing us to easily maintain a standard “core” for product stability. Being able to deploy this easily for the Windows environment coupled with effortless porting of the applications to the robust WebApps database ASP platform makes the Data Access product family the only tool set capable of effectively doing the job in our case.

Benefits

• More efficient and cost-effective - By creating this artificial entity, HuMimics can help other businesses and personal users gather, process, and deliver information in a more efficient and cost-effective manner. In certain applications, like a businesses’ FAQ site, HuMimics can also help to provide higher quality customer service, since the artificial entity has the ability to respond accurately and quickly to a number of customer needs.
• Flexible and creative interfaces - In the educational arena, the product provides a user interface that allows all children in grades K-12 to operate and manipulate an online educational site or an educational software package more efficiently. The animated head used for these applications can range from a cartoon character for the younger user to a rock/rap star for the older group. Any photograph can be rendered for use with AAMS.
• Configuration made easy - As for information delivery systems, HuMimics has the ability to configure its artificial entity to deliver precise and calculated responses intermixed with casual conversation thereby replicating human agents in applications like informational and marketing kiosks. This information delivery accuracy is paramount for Intranet applications such as the Human Relations Cyber-representative.

Future Plans

HuMimics has just recently deployed its Web-based product which revolves around the WebApp Server platform. We look to expand that basic artificial person interface to include a robust e-business component which give the Web-Droid the knowledge and ability to perform human task such as insurance claims agent, bank teller, and human relations representative. But the most exciting work has already begun to provide universal context sensitive speech recognition to the Data Access Product platform therefore enabling the HuMimics’ artificial person to understand the spoken word without previous user voice training and in high background noise public access environments.

The functional profile of the new VDF7 release and the expert assistance of the Data Access Technical Team is crucial to the success of this project.

"During the early development phase of the HuMimics project our technical team experimented with numerous development tools and deployment products. The number of database products that can support the unique dynamics of artificial intelligence (AI) neural structuring is very limited. Of those we worked with, only DataFlex provided the AI requirements in a real world application development platform. We would like to thank Data Access for their invaluable assistance in turning a research concept into a robust, working product." We look forward to this continued partnership as we move toward changing the relationship between computers and humans to better serve the information industry’s needs.

View Humimics’ Press Release

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