Holograms. Emotive, life-like digital human beings. Washing machine repairs directed from miles away. [Feb. 2019]
The rollout of 5G wireless networks that will continue throughout 2019 and beyond promises a slew of new smartphones that will hum along much faster than the models they’ll eventually replace. But while zippier handsets compatible with the next generation of wireless are surely welcome, 5G’s potential extends beyond them.
Verizon, and some of the entrepreneurial startups it is working with, recently demonstrated a few of the fresh consumer and business experiences made possible or enhanced by 5G, at its 5G Lab in New York City, one of five such labs around the country.
5G works in tandem with other technologies, notably artificial intelligence, augmented reality and enhanced computer vision, which as the name suggests, is the machine's ability to make sense of what it sees.
In each of the examples below, 5G promises to handle the big lift in processing data that digests a lot of bandwidth.
A very real but make-believe concierge
She is attractive, emotive – and all-too-real. But Lia is an emotionally intelligent “artificial human” from New Zealand startup Soul Machines, with expressions and slight skin imperfections that make it difficult to tell that she is digital.
Lia has a virtual brain, virtual nervous system and even digital versions of dopamine and oxytocin that affect her neurons and autonomously trigger facial muscles. She can make eye contact with you – you’ll see your own reflection looking at her – and read your face, detecting your emotional state. If you smile, Lia will smile back.
The idea is that you will engage with Lia, or a digital person like her, to perhaps book a vacation to Paris, to find an ideal credit card, to handle technical support, or to interact in some other customer service fashion.
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Lia is modeled after New Zealand actress Shushila Takao. Soul Machine can change the digital person's age, ethnicity and gender through digital DNA, based on real people. And though you could fool someone into thinking the person is real, Soul Machine customer Autodesk gave a digital character purple eyes to remind folks that she wasn't.
Soul Machine's other customers include Daimler and Royal Bank of Scotland. But fascinating as Lia is, you can't help but be wigged out by the prospect of not knowing if the person you are communicating with is human. And that is kind of creepy.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2019/02/25/5-g-tech-can-make-digital-humans-look-real-and-real-people-holograms/2883859002/