This paper describes a prototype implementation of a configuration system which uses automated planning techniques to compute workflows between declarative states. The resulting workflows are executed using the popular combination of ControlTier and Puppet. This allows the tool to be used in unattended “autonomic” situations where manual workflow specification is not feasible. It also ensures t...

We present a system which consists of a lifelike agent animated in real-time using video and audio analysis from the user. This kind of system could be used for Instant Messaging where an avatar controlled like a puppet is displayed instead of the webcam flow. The overall system is made of video analysis based on Active Appearance Models and audio analysis based on Hidden Markov Model. The para...

Given a photo of person A, we seek a photo of person B with similar pose and expression. Solving this problem enables a form of puppetry, in which one person appears to control the face of another. When deployed on a webcam-equipped computer, our approach enables a user to control another person’s face in real-time. This image-retrievalinspired approach employs a fully-automated pipeline of fac...

This paper presents a project aimed at the creation of fully automated marionettes for puppet plays, to be used in stage plays at the Atlanta Center for Puppetry Arts. In fact, marionettes are sophisticated and challenging mechanical systems, and therefore represent good test-beds for many current issues in robotics, such as systematic modeling of relatively high degree of freedom systems, sema...

One common trick to cheat people to believe fake products or a high-return low-risk investment scheme in the online discussion groups is to make use of sockpuppets (i.e., use different fake identities pretending to be different persons to praise or create the illusion of support for the product). A fundamental problem is how to identify these sockpuppets. In this paper, we propose two approache...

In the last years both industry and academia have shown a great interest in ensuring consistent cooperation for business-critical services, with contractually agreed levels of Quality of Service. Service Level Agreement specifications as well as techniques for their evaluation are nowadays irremissible assets. This paper presents Puppet (Pick UP Performance Evaluation Test-bed), an approach and...

The story of Pinocchio is the story of a man who creates a puppet with the ability to speak using human language, and to converse naturally – even to lie. Since the early days of the industrial revolution, people have imagined creating agents that can emulate human skills, including language production and conversation (Mayer, 1878; Wood, 2003). A modern example of this is Turing’s test for art...