Digital broadcasters. (Broadcast).

The launch of Ananova, the virtual newsreader, in April 2000 marked a turning point in the public perception of digital characters. With a mix of trepidation and humor, the more perceptive TV newscasters started asking if they were going to be replaced by virtual actors. We aren't aware of any that were, but it did raise some interesting questions. You only need to look at popular science fiction books and movies to catch glimpses of how digital characters may evolve and become more prolific in our daily lives.

Digital characters are an intriguing fusion of art and science, and we have seen massive advancements in both aspects over the last few years. This summer, Maddy, the virtual science presenter (shown at right), made regular appearances on the BBC's flagship science program Tomorrow's World, a live TV show on which she introduced news items and interacted with human presenters and viewers. Using sophisticated voice synthesis, voice recognition, animation synthesis, and AI, she was able to respond to unscripted questioning in real time. Unlike digital characters that are controlled by a puppeteer off camera or have their motions and scripts prepared entirely offline, Maddy's responses, motion, and rendering were live, giving us some insight into the future roles of digital characters in broadcast and indeed all aspects of our lives.

Real Benefits

In order to see where digital characters are going, we must first take a look at some of the key benefits they can offer. The most obvious one is that a digital character can operate on a 24/7 basis and have the capacity to retrieve information from its knowledge base or perform a task in a fraction of a second. Being digital, the character can also be omnipresent, holding multiple conversations simultaneously across international boundaries.

Much the same can be said about an Internet search engine, but the visual representation and personality that a digital character projects play an important role in satisfying our emotional requirements. These attributes help us identify with a character and sometimes even form a relationship. This might sound a bit radical, but humans frequently hold conversations and form relationships with non-human or inanimate objects. Have you ever sworn at your car when it broke down? Have you talked to a pet as if it were human? We are born communicators, and we readily assign human behavioral traits to non-human entities.

Within the first moments of seeing a digital character, we subconsciously classify it based on its visual appearance. If the visual representation is backed up with a convincing personality, we can start engaging emotionally with it. This can be a huge benefit when the character is used as a brand communication device, The character can be designed as the embodiment of a corporation's values and be used to communicate these as a sales agent, e-learning tutor, or information assistant. Being digital, the character will promote these values consistently, never tiring and never having an off day.

While there has been much development in the visual appearance of digital characters, there will ...