Just Ask Bus Uncle

Just Ask Bus Uncle

The next time you want to know when your bus is arriving, you can just whip out your phone and send a message to Bus Uncle. His first reply to you may be: "Which road lah, bus cease lah, or ship me location additionally can."

After sending you the data - "Just 4 mins only better be at bus cease ah" - ask him if the information is "affirm?" and he'll marketing reply: "4 hours hahaha no la four mins."

The entertaining "Bus Uncle" is actually a chatbot on Facebook Messenger created by Abhilash Murthy, a 24-12 months-old Info Systems Management graduate from Singapore Management University, in keeping with netsite Tech in Asia.

The chatbot was "trained" to reply customers' queries using pure language processing, which entails the communication between clever techniques and people utilizing pure languages.

When users send a message to Bus Uncle, they are requested for their location, which they will simply send at the touch of a button using Messenger's in-constructed location-sharing function.

In response to Bus Uncle's Facebook page, the bus instances are primarily based on data from DataMall, which is the Land Transport Authority database.

Quickly, you could be able to react to a Facebook publish by making a face.

Facebook mentioned on Wednesday that it has purchased facial recognition begin-up FacioMetrics, doubtlessly using the technology for photograph or video effects to better problem rival Snapchat.

"How individuals share and communicate is changing and things like masks and other results enable individuals to precise themselves in enjoyable and inventive methods," a Facebook spokesman said.

"We're excited to welcome the FacioMetrics team who will help carry more enjoyable effects to pictures and movies and build even more engaging sharing experiences on Facebook."

Silicon Valley-primarily based Facebook didn't disclose the financial terms of the deal to buy FacioMetrics, which was spun out of Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania.

FacioMetrics was based in 2015 and specialises in utilizing synthetic intelligence to offer facial image analysis capabilities to applications that run on smartphones.

The technology has potential for a bunch of purposes, including measuring audience reactions and digital or augmented realities.