October 22, 2003
Talking Heads on cell phones
Bill Howard for PC Magazine magazine has a fun article on «Talking Heads», or photo real avators for cell phones, thanks to technology allowing to change still photos into animated pictures.
"Several companies are working on bringing cartoonish characters and photo images to life. U.K.-based Anthropics with FaceWav and Pulse Entertainment with Veepers (virtual personalties) can animate human, animal, or cartoon faces and lip-sync spoken or synthesized phrases.
Think of the possibilities... "So along with cell-phone avatars advising you of traffic jams and a sepia-toned picture of grandmother reading a letter from long ago, you'll have the same animation technology aiding and abetting the unclothing of our public figures"
Howard concludes "The seamier aspects aside, avatar technology holds promise for plenty of legitimate uses, too. I expect we'll see both kinds of usage as this technology comes of age".
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