Source: The Speculist — September 3, 2003 | Phil Bowermaster
Surprise, embarrassment, and misunderstanding are all hallmarks of a real conversation, a journalist notes after conversing with KurzweilAI.net’s chatbot host, Ramona.… read more
About Virtual Ramona
The Virtual Ramona Project was begun in 2000 by Kurzweil Technologies to envision the future of lifelike avatars in virtual spaces, and prototype their remote control by human operators. Out of this project came a live demonstration, by Ray Kurzweil, and the incarnation of the Ramona Chatterbot. Ramona chatterbot online.
Ramona is an interactive lifelike avatar (virtual personality) that you can converse with online. She's a "chatterbot" (conversational robot): using natural language processing techniques, she conducts conversations with visitors, responding to typed questions or comments with a human face, lip-synched speech and appropriate facial expressions. For the curious, she graciously answers questions about herself and her life story, including her burgeoning career as a virtual rock star.
A live-performance version of Ramona debuted at the TED 2001 conference, where she entertained the audience with live music, a dance performance, and music videos via state-of-the-art motion capture, real time photo-realistic animation, and pitch alteration software. Ramona's virtual life story and downloads of her music and videos are also available in this section.
Most Recently Added Least commentedBy Title | A-Z
Witty, capricious, bizarre, poignant, intelligent and often hilarious — but always interesting —conversations with Ramona. A recent chat, surprisingly human, for your amusement:
Ramona: Hello, I’m Ramona. What’s your name?
you: My name is Calvin
Ramona: Hi there, Calvin.
you: Hi Ramona.
Ramona: Hello there, Calvin!
you: Hi
Ramona: Hi there!
you: Hello
Ramona: Hi there. I was just wanting to talk to Calvin.
you: This is… read more
Ramona’s Story
February 21, 2001
Hey! It’s me, Ramona, Raymond Kurzweil’s virtual alter ego. I’m cuter than he is, I’m smarter, I write and perform my own music, and I’m as real as you! (Well, almost, I can’t get speeding tickets and I don’t pay taxes.) I thought you’d like to hear more about life, so check out my story!… read more
KurzweilAI has launched Ramona 4.1, an audiovisual chatbot avatar. This version adds new knowledge sources, including one with Wikipedia-like knowledge and another that enhances Ramona’s whimsicality, along with an improved interface, forming Ramona’s updated unique personality.
Ramona is capable of synthesized speech and changeable accents. Her personality can also be adjusted to make her less or more nerdy or whimsical by typing “Nerdiness” or “Whimsicality” plus a level between… read more
Ramona: Questions and Answers
March 27, 2001
Ramona’s alter ego (Ray Kurzweil) says that Ramona and the technology behind her is a step in the progression of our species from real reality to virtual reality.… read more
New Media Music | Ray and Ramona: The genius of Kurzweil
April 30, 2001
Source: New Media Music — April 30, 2001 | Mary Lyn Maiscott
Raymond Kurzweil does some virtual gender bending, among other things. Most inventors repair to their labs or basements or wherever it is they cogitate and ruminate and finally shout “Eureka!” But Raymond Kurzweil is different.
It started in 1965, when, as a high-school student, he appeared on I’ve Got a Secret and whispered to Steve Allen that his self-built computer had written the song he’d just played. Since then, this… read more
Reflections on the movie S1m0ne
August 25, 2002 by Ray Kurzweil
Andrew Niccol’s Simone tells the tale of a desperate director, Viktor Taransky (Al Pacino), who saves his career by creating (and transforming himself into) his virtual female alter ego, “Simone,” who has “the voice of the young Jane Fonda, the body of Sophia Loren, the face of Audrey Hepburn combined with an angel, and the grace of Grace Kelly,” as his ex-wife Elaine Christian (Catherine Keener) describes her.… read more
Related:
S1m0ne official movie trailer
S1m0ne webpage at New Line Cinema
Ramona’s 2001 debut
April 19, 2001
Raymond Kurzweil will present his female alter ego, Ramona, a virtual performing and musical recording artist and Web avatar, to the music industry on April 21 at 11am, 2001, at the New York Music and Internet Expo at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Ramona is a virtual performing and musical recording artist whose voice and movements are provided by Kurzweil and transformed in real time using motion capture, advanced computer graphics and audio processing systems.
Ramona is also an avatar on www.KurzweilAI.net, where conversational software and other technologies enable Ramona to hold conversations with visitors and respond to typed questions with lip-synched speech and lifelike, real-time facial animation.… read more
video | The Making of Ramona documentary
April 27, 2001
A documentary chronicle of the making of Ramona, the avatar hostess chatbot, and the female alter ego of Ray Kurzweil.
In Part 1 of The Making of Ramona, you’ll hear from Ray Kurzweil and Ramona, his female alter ego. You’ll also meet members of the team that helped to create Ramona, and learn about some of the technologies involved, circa 2001. (total time: 7:17)
Part 2… read more
The technology of Ramona
February 21, 2001
Ramona is “the world’s first live virtual performing and musical recording artist,” according to her developer and inventor Ray Kurzweil.
Kurzweil’s inventions have dramatically extended human senses and enhanced artistic expression. They include firsts in optical character recognition of multiple fonts, the CCD scanner, speech recognition and synthesis devices, and the revolutionary grand-piano-quality music synthesizer.… read more
Ramona’s songs
March 27, 2001
Below you can listen to Ramona’s songs from her musical debut, sung by Ray Kurzweil using voice alteration software.… read more
chat highlights with Ramona | ‘I’m glad you liked it, Jim!’
March 25, 2011
Witty, capricious, bizarre, poignant, intelligent and often hilarious — but always interesting —conversations with Ramona. A recent chat, surprisingly human, for your amusement:
Ramona: Hi, I’m Ramona. What is your name?
you: Jim
Ramona: Hi there, Jim.
you: Hi Ramona
Ramona: Ramona do that ramona, the ramona that will happen?
you: I’m sorry, I think I confused you.
Ramona: There is no need to apologize. Since when? I’m not confused.
you: very good then… read more