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105
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3) Slratumsoft are developing the first
electronic virtual assistant, or EVA. If
EVAs live up to the developers' claims,
they could provide the illusion of
personal service without the cost. Call
centres, online advertisers and Internet
service providers are among the initial
targets. Eighty per cent of call centre
requests could, Stratumsoft argues, be
dealt with by an EVA. E-commerce is
another application. 'The best
experience you can have as a shopper
is personal contact, and EVA is
designed; to give that', says
Stratumsoft's director of marketing.
The technology behind EVA combines
two global trends in website design.
One, developed out of the computer
animation and gaming industry, is the
ability to give Web images the
impression of three dimensions. The
other is the use of dynamic database
skills and artificial intelligence-style
searching to retrieve information from
data banks.
Each EVA can be programmed with
information such as a product
catalogue, answers to frequently asked
questions or an online encyclopaedia. It
is also equipped with a search engine to
interpret customer requests made in
colloquial language. Queries are typed
in and answered via on-screen text
boxes.
If the EVA does not have an answer, it
will interrogate the questioner, record
the response, and add the answer to its
database for future enquiries. EVAs are
not fully animated to imitate human
features but they can be programmed to
gesture and imitate different moods. An
EVA is run via a Java applet - a small,
self-contained program coded to
download on to any type of personal
computer rather than being transmitted
over the Internet.
4) Ananova is the world's first digital
newsreader. She was created to front
an Internet 24 hours a day news
service by Digital Animations Group, a
Scottish 3D digital entertainment
company and PA New Media.
Mark Hird, Director of PA New Media
said, 'We have given her a full range
of human characteristics after
researching the personality most
people want to read news and other
information. Ananova has been
programmed to deliver breaking news
24 hours a day via the Internet, and
later on mobile phones, televisions
and other digital devices.'
The Ananova character fronts a
computer system which is constantly
updated with news, sport, share
prices, weather and other information.
This is converted into speech while
another program simultaneously
creates real-time animated graphics.
This ensures that the virtual
newscaster can be on top of the news
as it breaks, with very little delay at all.
People using the service can also
tailor their own news bulletins by using
search words to hear the latest
information on their chosen subjects.
Mr Hird believes the invention will
dramatically change the role of the
traditional newscaster, 'In 20 years
time we could be seeing that type of
job being replaced by computer-
generated images.' But not everyone
agrees. Professor Bill Scott said that
people prefer people to teach them
things and in a world where
information was increasingly
important, an established face was
important in terms of public trust. 'You
don't get that confidence with
computer characters.'
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