In this story: A friendly interface Turn ons, turn offs On the Web in April, on gadgets later Making her come alive RELATED STORIES, SITES

January 18, 2000
Web posted at: 3:34 p.m. EST (2034 GMT)

By D. Ian Hopper
CNN Interactive Technology Editor

(CNN) -- Move over, Jennings, Brokaw, Rather, Blitzer.

The Press Association in the United Kingdom will soon unveil a new news anchor that has an unlimited memory, lightning-quick reflexes, a nose for news -- and green hair.

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PA New Media's Ananova is a virtual broadcaster that reads news, sports, weather and more, with a personality designed to rival flesh-and-blood anchors. Her TelePrompTer is the PA's news desk -- Britain's counterpart to the Associated Press -- and can be personalized with details such as the user's preferred news, favorite soccer team and more.

Ananova, who looks like a cross between Posh Spice and Tomb Raider's Lara Croft, has also been designed with a personality. Her inflections, mood and facial animations change with the tone of each story. Her creators hope her personality will evolve even further.

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A friendly interface

PA New Media says it created Ananova to place a face on information.

"Down the line, lots of people will still be technophobes that don't want to interact with databases. We believe that we'll need to have nice interfaces for people, and this is where Ananova comes in," says Mark Hird, director of PA New Media.

"If you're downstairs in the kitchen making breakfast, you could have a device like Ananova that could tell you about news, traffic, or offer to read your e-mail. It would be like a human telling you what you need to know."

The personalization comes from a tool designed to return news and information, then feeds the results to Ananova.

PA New Media has developed a specialized search engine that looks specifically at live information sites and is more dynamic than traditional engines. At first, only U.K. news and information will be available. But Hird says international versions will come soon, as well as regional versions in other languages.

The language issue was a major sticking point in the development of Ananova. At first, she had a "very English, very posh, authoritative" voice, Hird says. But focus groups complained that they felt they were being lectured to. Regional accents were equally unattractive, since they brought along regional stereotypes and prejudices. The result was "sort of a transatlantic accent, kind of otherworldly. They wanted to hear a computer voice, and any human voice was pigeonholed," Hird says.

Turn ons, turn offs

PA New Media has developed an extensive "back story" for Ananova. She's 28, 5 feet 8 inches tall, "quietly intelligent," and enjoys sports statistics, "The Simpsons," Mozart and the British rock band Oasis. It's certainly a lot of personality for an animated head -- although perhaps more, some might argue, than some real-life television newscasters.

Ananova's personality is evolving, Hird says. She's still reliant on programmers to give her her personality, but since news items come tagged with XML language explaining the type of story each is, she is able to respond to the stories appropriately -- presumably, she won't chuckle playfully while relating a story about a plane crash.

On the Web in April, on gadgets later

Ananova will first be exclusively on PA New Media's Web site, where she'll be streamed with RealPlayer. But soon after, Ananova will escape the PC and jump into mobile devices. Mobile device makers have been seeking some form of multimedia content for broadband, Hird says, and Ananova will be platform-neutral.

The full site is scheduled to launch sometime in April, but certain elements may be available earlier.

Making her come alive

Ananova works a little like flesh-and-blood newscasters. The version that users see will just be a projection of her, as she'll actually be rendered in full high-resolution glory on PA New Media systems. To animate her, PA partnered with Digital Animations, best known for creating the full-motion videos in computer games such as "Braveheart" (Eidos).

PA's demands were much more difficult than a game developer's, however. Instead of giving the company six months to make a few minutes of video, Ananova needs to be animated in real time based on news scripts. To accomplish this, the developers used XML scripting, text-to-speech software, and a lot of proprietary animation tools.

On the other hand, the task was made easier by only having to animate Ananova's head, and that, only for TV, said John Piel, 3D animator on Sierra's "Gabriel Knight 3."

"The users only have to see it in 2D, not from different angles. Art in games are more rudimentary, because it's both on the fly and in a fully immersive 3D game environment," Piel says.

Although offering more talking heads is enticing, says Hird, the developers want to get the technology right. Ananova will release with some rough edges, but Hird believes it's important to establish Ananova in people's minds first.

"We could see offering people the ability to get their news from someone else. The notion that you can personalize your own newscasters is attractive," he said.

The site is recruiting beta-testers now, asking the public to help Ananova with her pronunciation and mood. PA is particularly concerned with place names, and advising Ananova to be happier or more somber depending on the story.

"Further down the line, we're working with artificial intelligence specialists to make her more intuitive to recognize stories and give appropriate responses," Hird says. "Our vision is that at some stage AI will develop enough so that the programmers are redundant."

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