Associated Press
NEWTON, Mass. — Ever wish you could see an e-mail sender’s face to see what they’re REALLY saying? Ever wish you could punctuate your own messages with something more powerful than :)?
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| The LifeFX "stand-in" of Warren V. (Pete) Musser is displayed on a computer screen at the offices of LifeFX in Newton, Mass.
Associated Press |
It’s starting to happen. LifeFX is using image-morphing computer technology to bring faces to life on screen. The company’s Facemail program offers generic models who gesture and move in at least semi-realistic form as they read e-mails using voice technology from IBM.
Other companies are working on similar technology, but Newton-based LifeFX got a big boost in bringing the product to the mass market this week when it announced a deal with Kodak that could let people convert their own photographs into talking, reusable Internet "stand-ins" within a year.
"The Internet was supposed to be an interactive visual medium," says Lucille Salhany, who founded LifeFX in 1999 after holding top jobs at Fox and UPN television networks.
The free Facemail program already has become a popular download since debuting in December. The company says it is compatible with leading e-mail programs such as Microsoft Outlook, Hotmail and AOL.
Recipients who do not have Facemail installed on their machine can either read the messages as regular text e-mail or click a link to the LifeFX site to download the program.
If Kodak, the Rochester, N.Y.-based film giant, and tiny startup LifeFX can make the technology work, users could someday use photos as the model for a kind of cyberspace doppelganger. When a friend opens an e-mail, the sender’s face would read out the text.
Unlike streaming video, which has to be recorded, a stand-in can be reused infinitely, does not require a high-speed Internet connection, and it takes no more energy than writing an e-mail.
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