Cleopatra the Electronic Home Attendant 132
junger writes "Electronic home attendant Cleopatra is a digital avatar that appears on screens and wireless tablets throughout ElectronicHouse's 2006 Home of the Year. She greets each resident in the home by name, announces visitors, phone calls, voice mails, emails and deliveries. Cleopatra shows who is home, pictures of recent visitors at the front door, the local weather forecast, stock market changes, and even the national security level."
i am honored... (Score:5, Informative)
i have no desire (and no hope) to defend anything in the house to this crowd. but let me just clear up a couple of misconceptions:
* it's not a "multi-million dollar mansion" and the people in it can't afford $450/hr service calls, thank you very much. it is a 4500 square foot home with fairly modest furnishings that happens to have a fair amount of technology in it because that's something i enjoy. yes, i bought 20 tablets for the house, but that's only after i found them (progears) on clearance for $350 each. that was by far my biggest single expenditure as far as home automation.
* i also wouldn't characterize the software as something a large company spent a lot of time researching and developing. fast track US is basically me, and i was just having a little fun with my home automation. i did not expect to win "smart home of the year." (not to mention the honor of being fed to the slashdot sharks).
* we named her cleopatra because we wanted something unusual to help with the voice recognition, and the gold earring gave her a bit of an egyptian look. by the way, we have nothing to do with creating the avatar itself - that is available (in G and R rated versions) at http://desktopmates.com/ [desktopmates.com].
* yes, i could care less about national security level, or the market closing averages, for that matter. i put them in because i could.
* cleopatra is basically a voice interface to the automation system. she does not read your emails, or recognize your face as you walk in, or many of the other things suggested above. but that does not mean you are not paranoid.
* i have no idea who lumpy is but i can assure you he has not been to my house.
ok, back to your regularly scheduled bloodshedding....
brian