EZ-AI_Client_EZB

How to use the EZ-AI_Client_EZB robot skill

This is the EZ-AI client for ARC. EZ-AI is an AI framework that comes with a set of components that allows you to use natural speech to ask your robot questions, set reminders and timers, get weather information and a lot more. You can also add java plugins into the framework to extend its capabilities.

This version is an early beta release of the client. It will be changing as we go through the beta test process.

There are 3 components of EZ-AI. The EZ-AI Client (this plugin), the EZ-AI Server (can be purchased through www.cochranrobotics.com), and the Authentication server (we have one setup for use or you can setup your own). The EZ-AI server communicates with the EZ-AI AuthServer to make sure that the EZ-AI server isn't pirated. We sell the EZ-AI Server (configured and ready to use) that just requires you to plug the device into your network router and power, and you are ready to use this plugin. There is a monthly fee for the use of the EZ-AI server. This is to cover the cost of the API's that are used by the server to provide answers to questions and to provide the natural language translation into something your robot can understand and use.

If you have an EZ-AI server on your network, this plugin allows you to use EZ-AI. One server can serve information to multiple robots using the EZ-AI plugin and knows which plugin requested information from the EZ-AI server. The EZ-AI server sends this information to the internet based API's that we use and the information is returned to the EZ-AI plugin which assigns variable values in ARC which you can then speak or take action on. This allows you to have a consistent voice for your robot.

The EZ-AI server costs about $100 and there is a monthly fee of about $30 for 1,000 requests for that month. We are looking at ways to reduce this monthly cost as we add more services. We are looking at providing a "lowest cost option" with will choose which STT API to use based on the length of the request. For short requests, Google's or Watson's API would be used. For long dictation text, Nuance would be used. This is due to the pricing structure for these API's. We also will work with Amazon's Alexa in the future and when Microsoft allows people to start working with Cortana, we will start development for that service.

When new features are added by Cochran Robotics, LLC we will notify you that there are new features available and provide an easy method of downloading the changes or updates to the EZ-AI server in your environment. The notification will be through the EZ-AI client and will offer you the option to perform the upgrade to the server. Some upgrades can be done in place without requiring a reboot of the EZ-AI server while more extensive ones will require the EZ-AI server to reboot. This is managed through the AuthServer and requires very minimal user interaction.

EZ-AI is a secure platform for a number of reasons. First, the EZ-AI server that you use resides on your network and not on the cloud. This is as safe as any computer on your network and is protected by your firewall. Advanced encryption methods are used to protect the EZ-AI server. If valid and registered hardware isn't used, the EZ-AI server will not function. This protects your account as your hardware is registered to your account. Encryption changes with each request made. Without your hardware in their possession, it would be very difficult at best for someone to use your account for transactions.

We have taken a lot of steps to make sure that EZ-AI is an easy install process. The EZ-AI client looks for the EZ-AI server on your network. The EZ-AI server comes built and ready to use and is registered on our AuthServer as a valid EZ-AI server. This all means that you simply plug in the EZ-AI server, and then add this plugin to your ARC project. There is some configuration in the ARC project to allow it to use the variables needed and the scripts needed to use the EZ-AI plugin. There is a sample project will be available for download from Synthiam website. The link to this project is at the bottom of this page.

To update your EZ-AI server to the latest version, click the update button found at http://[EZ-AI SERVER IP ADDRESS HERE]:8080/EZ-AI_Server/updates.html.

For more information in general to make sure that everything is connected correctly to the auth server and such, visit http://[EZ-AI SERVER IP ADDRESS HERE]:8080/EZ-AI_Server/userLogs.json

If you have any questions, it would be best to post them in the EZ-AI Google Community Group, but we also monitor Synthiam 's community forum for questions but it is more likely that questions will be seen through the Google+ EZ-AI community page.

For more information on EZ-AI visit www.ez-ai.net or www.CochranRobotics.com.

For more information on what EZ-AI is, visit http://www.ez-ai.net/blog. For some example uses and setup of EZ-AI visit http://www.ez-ai.net/clients.html

For the example project, visit https://synthiam.com/Community/EZCloud/Download.aspx?id=3471