i. humanoid phone
The Elfoid phone is a miniature version of the Telenoid R1 robot developed last year by a research team led by Osaka University professor Hiroshi Ishiguro. The current prototype measures 20 centimeters (8 in) long, is covered in a soft fleshy urethane skin, and has the same genderless and ageless appearance as the Telenoid. The control buttons are embedded in the chest, which glows green when the Elfoid is in use...
Equipped with a camera and motion-capture system, the Elfoid phone will be able to watch the user's face and transmit motion data to another Elfoid phone, which can then reproduce the face and head movements in real-time.
(via Pink Tentacle)
ii. cable company "live chat analyst"
(click image for larger version)
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The thing is, when I had my extra special Comcast chat experience, I came to be convinced that I was talking to a human because it eventually got annoyed with my asking if it was a robot and musing about the scripted responses. Also, due to some quirks of English usage I am pretty sure the person staffing the chat thing was a human nonnative speaker of English. It was all very strange.
Natalia-- Hmmm, your story's making me reinterpret my experience w/ Stuart Yaxley! There were a couple moments in the chat when I thought he was actually responding to me (OK, my peevish complaints) instead of following a script. But perhaps he was taking advantage of the "is he a robot or isn't he" ambiguity in order NOT to engage with my peevishness. It's definitely strange... but still less so than the humanoid phone!
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