Confucius Computer: Transforming the Future through Ancient Philosophy - Report from SIGGRAPH

Wednesday - Confucius Computer was featured as one of the New Technology demonstrations at SIGGRAPH. The software is an innovated form of illogical media computation that explores into Confucius philosophy. It enables the user to learn his historic teachings by incorporating his philosophies with casual, everyday activities such as eating and listening to music.

The first station is Chat based. The user can engage in conversation with a virtual representation of Confucius and ask him questions or deliver statements. In return, he responds with wisdom of encouragement accompanied by relative vocabulary words in lieu of his philosophical advice.

Station two demonstrates algorithms that filters any form of music in order to make it “balanced”. The application will filter the rhythm and scale of the song, and output it harmonically in “positive” Chinese pentatonic style. Simultaneously during analyzation, it will also generate a painting in correspondence to cosmological theory of the five elements. The five elements being: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. This also allows the user to manipulate the elements in the painting to generate a different music output.

Station three is about food! Here you can measure the balance of your Yin and Yang intake with every meal. The user is able to input a recipe and Confucius Computer will inform you whether the ingredient is hot, cold, or neutral according to traditional Chinese medicine.