October 25, 2006
Software generates video news bulletins
This is a little off this blog's usual subject, but it's really interesting. Researchers say software that automatically generates timely video news bulletins, presented by computer-animated characters, could revolutionise current affairs broadcasting, New Scientist reports.
"The system, called News at Seven, can produce reports tailored to a person's particular interests, from world affairs to celebrity gossip.
Using keywords entered by the user, the program selects news site RSS feeds and specific stories to focus on. "The stories are edited for length, and changed to make them more colloquial and suited to speech," says Hammond.
The next step is to extract further key terms from these reports and use these to search for supplementary images and videos on sites like YouTube and Google Video. Technorati and Google Blog Search are also used find opinionated blog posts related to the topic of the broadcast. "The software looks for words and phrases indicative of emotional impact," Hammond explains."
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