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An Introduction to Agora Brands Group

May 19, 2020

This blog post is part of a series of posts covering the technologies that Agora Brands Group uses to create avatars. To find all the articles in this blog series, Google search “InteracTech Series – Agora Brands Group” or use the hashtag “#InteracTech” on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

Over the next seven weeks, we will be talking about the amazing technologies that give substance to Agora Brands Group avatars. We will start with perhaps the most impressive feature: Natural Language Processing..

What is Natural Language Processing?.

Natural Language Processing (NLP) combines techniques from linguistics, computer science, information engineering, and artificial intelligence to enable computers to understand the things users say to them. In its most basic sense, NLP aims to understand language in the same way that humans do. This technology is what enables us to give voice commands to computer assistants like Siri and Alexa. Natural Language Processing focuses on important fields of linguistics including syntax, semantics, discourse, speech, and dialogue..

Why is it Important?.

The greatest benefit of NLP is its understanding of context. Languages are filled with words that carry double meanings when spoken. Rather than interpreting each word individually, NLP focuses on understanding words as they relate to the other words in a sentence or phrase, which eliminates possible confusion of word meaning. Proper NLP engineering distinguishes between a voice command to send an email to a “dear friend” from a “deer friend,” as well as understanding informal styles of speech. This allows users to speak to computer assistants in a natural way, encouraging efficiency and positive interaction..

Benefit to Agora Brands Group Avatars.

With the power of Natural Language Processing, customers can converse with Agora Brands Group avatars in the same way they would with a human customer service representative. Natural, realistic interaction is important for our avatars to deliver the best possible customer experience. NLP also enables our avatars translate speech into 25 different languages, giving access to millions of customers around the world. Using machine translation, avatars convert customers’ speech into text, identifies which language the speech is, and enables the avatar to adjust its own speech to match that of the user..

Natural Language Processing is a crucial component of our avatar functionality that helps us provide an amazing customer experience. Agora Brands Group uses many more cutting-edge technologies that make our avatars as realistic as possible, which we will be going into depth on in the coming weeks. Next week we will be covering Motion Capture technology, which helps our avatars look and move in a humanistic manner.