Abstract: The present teaching relates to method, system, medium, and implementations for activating an animatronic device. Proximity of a user device is first detected. Based on the detected proximity of the user device, the animatronic device is awakened from an inactive state, wherein the animatronic device is to be used to conduct a dialogue with a user of the user device.

Abstract: The present teaching relates to method, system, medium, and implementations for enabling communication with a user. Information representing surrounding of a user engaged in an on-going dialogue is received via the communication platform, wherein the information includes a current response from the user in the on-going dialogue and is acquired from a current scene in which the user is present and captures characteristics of the user and the current scene. Relevant features are extracted from the information. A state of the user is estimated based on the relevant features and a dialogue context surrounding the current scene is determined based on the relevant features. A feedback directed to the current response of the user is generated based on the state of the user and the dialogue context.

Abstract: The present teaching relates to method, system, medium, and implementations for an automated dialogue companion. Multimodal input data associated with a user engaged in a dialogue of a certain topic in a dialogue scene are first received and used to extract features representing a state of the user and relevant information associated with the dialogue scene. A current state of the dialogue characterizing the context of the dialogue is generated based on the state of the user and the relevant information associated with the dialogue scene. A response communication for the user is determined based on a dialogue tree corresponding to the dialogue of the certain topic, the current state of the dialogue, and utilities learned based on historic dialogue data and the current state of the dialogue.

Abstract: The present teaching relates to method, system, medium, and implementation for activating an animatronic device. Information about a user is obtained for whom an animatronic device is to be configured to carry out a dialogue with the user. The animatronic device includes a head portion and a body portion and the head portion is configured based on one of a plurality of selectable head portions. One or more preferences of the user are identified from the obtained information and used to select, from the plurality of selectable head portions, a first selected head portion. A configuration of the head portion of the animatronic device is then configured based on the first selected head portion for carrying out the dialogue.

Abstract: A substance determination system comprises a chip comprising: a substrate; a microfluidic channel disposed on the substrate; a reagent enclosed in the microfluidic channel; and a substance inlet to the microfluidic channel; a centrifugal device configured to rotate the chip; and a micro-processor device configured to assess the reagent in the crofluidic channel. A method for identifying a substance comprises: inserting a substance into an inlet in a microfluid detection device having a reagent disposed in a microfluid circuit connected to a mixing domain; spinning the microfluid detection device to move the substance and the reagent to the mixing domain; capturing a digital image of a reaction between the substance and the reagent; analyzing the digital image of the reaction to determine a color parameter; comparing the color parameter to a reference parameter of a reference composition; and assessing the comparison to determine if the substance is the reference composition.