Project Murphy

The Microsoft Cognitive Services group introduced Project Murphy to the Skype bot family for Build 2016. Originally referred to as the "what-if" bot, Murphy sought to answer the question "what if a robot had an imagination?" This inspired an exploration of how human creativity could be harnessed to build a robot that used machine learning capabilities to create accurate and imaginative images based on the what-if questions it was being asked.

Murphy was debuted as both a chat bot on Skype, but was even more imaginatively brought to life via kiosk experience for trade shows and in-store interactions. I created the visualization of the Murphy character, as well as animated his responses to the expression of human emotion (i.e., through machine learning, he is able to recognize delight or disappointment in users visually, and through animation, expresses empathy accordingly.)

The design of the character itself fit in with Microsoft's simplified illustration style, but spoke to Murphy's empathy for and desire to understand human emotion and imagination. Why else would a robot need glasses, but that he's trying to be a bit more human than the standard machine?

https://www.projectmurphy.net/
https://www.facebook.com/projectmurphybot/