Many of us who have used Mycroft and/or any other AI smart assistant have probably wondered at one point or another, “Wouldn’t it be cool if this had a 3D character/avatar to go along with it”. At TREE Industries we have thought the same thing since we first start developing and using Mycroft in our business and home shortly after one of the first alpha versions was released.
Over the last 6 weeks or so we have feverishly been developing a bare prototype to control a 3D avatar through Unity3D for another community member. At some point we started thinking to ourselves, how far can we take this? Well over the last two weeks we have polished and taken the bare prototype into a full 3D Character/Avatar App for Mycroft.
We’ll be using this thread to post about Features, Availability, Feedback, etc. It is very exciting to have the opportunity to offer something unique to such a great community.
Main Features
Fully animated 3D avatar with Lip Syncing and gestures (gestures somewhat limited for first version)
Available for multiple platforms (Linux, Windows, Mac, and Android to start)
Integrate directly with any Mycroft powered device through websockets
Configurable IP address to connect app with Mycroft
Other Features
Trigger wake word
Quick Commands
Volume Control
Media Control
Mute / Unmute Mic
Sleep / Wakeup
App connection to Mycroft realtime indicator
Configurable Latency / Lipsync Delay setting
Availability
There is still a lot of room from improvement, and bleeding edge technology won’t always be perfect. Knowing this we are keeping the first version pretty simple with all of the features above and one female avatar to start with for just $5 for each platform. If that goes well we have an ambitious roadmap already planned for this app.
We love contributing our free time towards Mycroft skills that are free and open source. Please know that should you decide to support us by purchasing the 3D Mycroft Avatar that you are actively helping us be able to dedicate more time towards developing such skills.
Just an observation: unity3d is not Open source. I would to see like this implemented with an open source engine rather than unity
Edit: Ooops sorry, (premature posting) this is not an open source project, rather a paid for add on, so you are of course free to use any library you like.
No worries, thanks for your response anyways. We’d just like to add that we agree with your viewpoint of being focused on open source. We’re leaning towards complementing the 3D Avatar apps with a couple of free and open source skills that would be able to trigger “easter eggs” or other in app functionality (think dance skill).
Also we’ve already developed a number of free skills and other Mycroft proof of concept skills that are available on our Github. With many more planned Our hope is this app will allow us to dedicate more resources to developing premium open source skills for Mycroft.
Our team is working to put some of the final touches on the alpha release versions of the 3D Avatar for Mycroft this weekend.
Here’s how things are shaping up. We’ll be releasing 3 model variations each with a version available for Windows & Linux (both versions are included with each app purchase). Our goal was to make sure we had a diverse selection of avatars hence why we waited until at least 3 were ready before any release.
Each app regardless of which model version selected will include a GUI that has buttons for some core skills, mic mute, & wake word.
During alpha release we’ll be offering %50 off, so each model variation will only cost $2.50 USD.
You will be able to manage and download your purchased Avatars directly through our website, purchases will processed through Paypal.
So are you planning on having this work with a pepper’s ghost style setup (pseudo hologram)? I know a few other companies have explored this, but it would be neat to see it implemented in a full assistant setup. Gatebox is the one that comes to mind, but I’ve seen a few others. It more or less just requires a black background.
Either way this seems like a neat idea!
That is definitely an interesting thought that we have not considered yet. Though it’s something we are going to look into. If some options in the near future only require a black background then it should be possible without much extra work. Thanks for the input!
Installation instructions are still in work but will be completed very soon. For those that don’t want to wait it’s fairly simple to get one setup. Simply download and extract the zip file for each avatar you have purchased, start the app, then put in your mycroft device ip address (must be on same local network as app) into the settings.
Use the coupon code “mycroft” without the quotations to receive a 50% discount to celebrate the initial release. We will not be promoting this coupon code heavily, it’s mostly a thank you to the great Mycroft community and team.
nicely done, is there an option in changing the avatar to a self created avatar? what was the 3d model built in? and what language or engine was it built in aswell?
We are also offering a coupon code for a free Avatar for the next month to celebrate our 2nd birthday as a company. Use the coupon code TREEBDAY during checkout. (limit one use per customer)
Our hope is this app will allow us to dedicate more resources to developing premium open source skills for Mycroft.