The Giver of Names is a long term project that Rokeby has been working on for over seven years. It is to be computer installation with visual pattern recognition, word association and a knowledge of English grammar. It will analyze the video images of objects placed before it and make comments using a speech synthesizer.
The Wanderer is a presentation of one particular phenomenon that will play a part in The Giver of Names as it evolves. It is an expert system with a knowledge of grammar, a database consisting of the complete written works of David Rokeby and a set of statistics detailing word frequency and the occurrence of word combinations.
Using a complex process of association it forms sentences, displays them on the screen and then speaks them in a number of synthesized voices simultaneously. ItĒs "train of thought" can be influenced by the viewer typing words on the keyboard.
The Wanderer exhibits behavior not by itĒs action in space but in itĒs decision making processes. It is an automaton inhabiting the virtual world of the computer.