Mya (program)
Intelligent personal assistant | |
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Website | mya.com (defunct) |
Mya was an
Both the character and the program were announced to the public via an advertisement in March 2000, though the program was not ready for use at that time. Despite the announcement generating a considerable amount of attention, little was heard regarding the project in subsequent months. The program was never officially released nor cancelled, though the trademarks for both Myosphere and Mya were abandoned by Motorola in 2002. The name Mya was believed to be a play on the words 'My assistant'.
Proposed features and development
The Internet service that Mya was developed for was called Myosphere.[1][2] Motorola began development of Myosphere in 1998, and it had been described as a speech enabled service "which enables consumers to manage and control wireless and wireline communications from a single point of access using natural voice commands."[3] Several other companies had already announced plans for similar software at the time; Alan Reiter from Wireless Internet and Mobile Computing was puzzled at Motorola's announcement of Myosphere, saying "They're kind of late to the [voice activation] party. But the party is likely to be very big. ... Motorola's entry will help further legitimize the value of voice response systems. But it's a tough market, and it will take time." The term myosphere was "a play on the theme of connecting the elements of an individual's world, or sphere."[4]
Intended to provide a human-like interface to the Internet,[5][6] Mya was to be accessed via a toll-free telephone number and a pin code.[7] The program was designed to work with any phone, including landlines, but primarily for mobiles,[8] and was to be accessible 24 hours a day.[9] Mya was said to be able to answer questions on topics such as stock prices, news, sports, weather conditions, traffic, airline reservations, addresses, and appointments,[10] as well as being able to call contacts in a mobile phone's address book.[11]
Intended to be a paid service
Character
To create a commercial for Mya, Motorola hired the
Digital Domain chose not to use
Mya's visual representation, however, appeared solely during advertising and on her website. Only her voice was to be heard when using the actual program.[18] Demonstrations of Mya's abilities and images of the character could be viewed at the now defunct website, mya.com.[17][18] Raimondi said he believed the name Mya was a play on the words 'My assistant',[23] as did Sidney Matrix in the book Cyberpop: Digital Lifestyles and Commodity Culture.[25]
Debut and appearances
Mya made her debut on March 26, 2000 in a 60-second
Mya subsequently received considerable media attention,[18] and was featured on the front covers of USA Today, InStyle, Wired[2][19] and Adbusters.[27] One promotion for Mya showed Hugh Hefner sitting in a limousine with two Playboy Bunnies, asking Mya to read him his emails.[2][26]
The Mya program was on display at the Motorola wireless booth at COMDEX in April 2000, which was visited by then president Bill Clinton. Mya "chok[ed] up halfway" through a demonstration for the president and had to be restarted.[28]
In 2006, Sidney Matrix stated Mya "disappeared" after her debut commercial;[27] in August 2000, a Yankee Group vice-president stated the debut advertisement for Mya was a "great ad, but where have [Motorola] gone with it? ... The spot drove viewers to its website to demo the product ... but failed to market Mya further."[29] Mya was never documented to have been released, nor was there an announcement of the program's cancellation; Motorola abandoned their trademark for 'Mya' on September 19, 2002 and their trademark for 'Myosphere' on December 1, 2002.[30]
Reception
Character
The reception of the character was mixed. Libby Callaway from New York Post stated Mya was one of their favourite "virtual babes", and said she threatened to take Lara Croft's title as the internet's most popular pin-up girl, also describing Mya as "the world's first 'cyber assistant'".[17] Whilst admitting that the character of Mya was visually appealing, John Sullivan of Wireless Insider also stated that Motorola "went overboard" by trying to give the Mya program a character in the hopes she would become a celebrity in her own right, and accused Motorola of trying to mimic the success of Lara Croft.[8] Mya was described in the 2003 book Data Made Flesh: Embodying Information as "by far" the best-rendered and most self-assured digital woman.[18] Noah Robischon from Entertainment Weekly called her debut the second creepiest moment at that year's Academy Awards (the first being Angelina Jolie kissing her brother).[31][32]
Writing in Popular Mechanics, Tobey Grumet described Mya as a male-chauvinistic creation,[9] and she was cited in the 2006 book Physical Culture, Power, and the Body as an example of simulated sexualised females.[5] Sidney Matrix stated that Mya's seductive appearance and sultry voice "depended on, borrowed from and retrench[ed] sexist stereotypes", and accused Motorola of normalising the assumption that technology users are both male and heterosexual.[20] Motorola's marketing director Julie Roth defended the design of Mya's appearance and voice, attributing it to market research of what would appeal to users.[9]
Mya's character was often compared to the female computer-simulated character for Ananova,[2][5][17][18][21] a web-based news service that was being developed around the same time.[33]
Announced program
Though Mya's character was generally regarded as impressive, the underlying technology was described by Peggy Albright in Wireless Week as not surprising; Albright said Motorola was "latest company in recent weeks to introduce a voice-activated virtual assistant", as Mya was announced shortly after
You need to speak like a BBC broadcaster to be understood and use the vocabulary of a toddler to get what you want.
— Dawn Chmielewski[35]
The program won the "Most Innovative Telephony Application" award at the 20th Annual AVIOS Conference in April 2001.[36]
References
- ^ ISBN 978-0-262-04235-2.
- ^ a b c d e Barboza, David (April 25, 2000). "Motorola hopes a computer-generated character will link the real world with the virtual one". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 8, 2014. Retrieved July 6, 2014.
- ^ "Motorola trials Myosphere for Internet mobile comms". v3.co.uk. August 4, 1998. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved July 7, 2014.
- ^ Zajac, Andrew (August 4, 1998). "Motorola Tests Software For Dialing Using Voice". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved July 10, 2015.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-415-36352-5.
- ISBN 978-1-58603-188-6.
- ^ a b c d Grumet, Tobey (1 July 2000). "Cool toy - Mya desires your attention". Marketing magazine. Archived from the original on December 9, 2016. Retrieved 16 November 2014.
- ^ a b c Sullivan, John (April 17, 2000). "Motorola's Hot New Wireless Data Interface? Voice". Wireless Insider. 18 (16): 1.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Grumet, Tobey (November 2000). "Digital Dame". Popular Mechanics: 37.
- ^ a b c ""Virtual Sensation," Mya Makes Her Debut At the Oscars; Motorola Announces Its First Cyber-Assistant". Business Wire. March 27, 2000. Archived from the original on June 23, 2014. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
- ^ Johnston, Margret (April 19, 2001). "Motorola's Wireless Net App Integrates Voice". Computerworld. Archived from the original on July 7, 2014. Retrieved July 6, 2014.
- ^ "CNN Transcript: How to Protect Your Privacy on the Net; What's at Stake in the Microsoft Antitrust Battle?". CNN. April 1, 2000. Archived from the original on June 26, 2014. Retrieved June 26, 2014.
- ^ "Motorola and Nuance team up for mobile voice Web solutions". Intelligent Systems Report. 17 (7). Lionheart Publishing, Inc.: 5 July 2000.
- ^ Quain, John R (August 2000). "Anchors Away". Popular Science: 47.
- ^ "Motorola Japan and NTT Software Sign MOU to Design and Deliver VoiceXML Applications in Japan; Collaboration to Provide Japanese Market with Voice Access of the Internet". Business Wire. 23 April 2001. Archived from the original on August 29, 2014. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
- ^ "Motorola Strikes Internet Voice Partnership with NTT". Japanese Telecom. 7 (4): 12. April 2001.
- ^ a b c d e f g Callaway, Libby (June 4, 2000). "A Wave of Cyber Babes: Digital Models Spin the Web With Their Style Savvy". New York Post. Archived from the original on June 23, 2014. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-415-96905-5.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Larsen, Elizabeth (October 2000). "Mya way". I.D. 47 (6). F+W: 88–92.
- ^ a b c Matrix 2006, p. 111.
- ^ a b Matrix 2006, p. 112.
- S2CID 54849085.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8230-7928-5.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-500-28381-3.
- ^ Matrix 2006, p. 110.
- ^ a b c Albright, Peggy (April 3, 2000). "Mya debuts at the Oscars". Wireless Week. 6 (14): 38.
- ^ a b Matrix 2006, p. 109.
- ^ McCullagh, Declan (April 19, 2000). "Clinton does Comdex". Wired. Archived from the original on July 7, 2014. Retrieved July 6, 2014.
- ^ Elkin, Tobi (7 August 2000). "Motorola out to build brand image". Crain's Chicago Business. Vol. 23, no. 33. p. 20.
- ^ "Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS)". United States Patent and Trademark Office. Note: Search for "Mya" and "Myosphere"
- ^ Robischon, Noah (April 21, 2000). "O Sole Mya". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on December 9, 2016. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
- ^ Tyrrell, Rebecca (February 22, 2015). "The most awkward Oscar moments ever, from Liza Minnelli's selfie snub to Angelina Jolie's 'incest kiss'". Metro. Archived from the original on December 9, 2016. Retrieved July 10, 2015.
- ISBN 978-0814740248.
- ^ Drucker, Elliot (May 1, 2000). "Tackling the human interface". Wireless Week. 6 (18): 50.
- ^ Orange County Register.
- ^ "The 20th Annual AVIOS Conference Announces Best of Show Award Winners". Business Wire. April 24, 2001. Archived from the original on July 7, 2014. Retrieved July 6, 2014.
Bibliography
- Matrix, Sidney (2006). Cyberpop: Digital Lifestyles and Commodity Culture. ISBN 9781135506711.