Hi, I am Sam, your nearly real weather man. Yesterday was born in Madrid the first virtual weather man, who will anchor weather information a la carte on TV, Internet and cell phones.
Many film directors are craving for virtual actors, in order to avoid the tantrums of flesh-and-blood prima donnas. Weathermen may be more reasonable people than movie stars, but nonetheless they just got digital competition: he’s called Sam and is the first virtual weatherman.
Sam, a 3D character who has his own web site, will broadcast weather information in three languages (Catalan, Spanish and English) via several TV channels, Internet sites and mobile phones. Sam has been created by Activa Multimedia, the interactive-services subsidiary of the Corporació Catalana de Ràdio i Televisió (CCRTV), in cooperation with two Barcelona universities: Pompeu Fabra (3D design) and La Salle (voice synthesis).
SAM is also the acronym of Serveis Audiovisuals de Meteorologia, another CCRTV subsidiary providing weather information services to end users and media outlets. Sam will debut indeed next Monday on the screens of the Meteo channel, carried by the Spanish Digital+ satellite platform.
Sam’s creators are already thinking about cloning him, in order to apply the concept to other information that can be automated, such as traffic reports. They also intend to give Sam a female colleague, who will add the weather touch to the ranks of virtual newscasters.
Sam is not the first virtual weatherman: a company called Oddcast has been providing Flash-animated weatherpersons to websites for two years, but those are more like two-dimensional avatars, while Sam is a 3D character with 78.000 bones, who can modulate his voice, generate movements according to the data he’s speaking and even changing clothes, for broadcasting from ski slopes or beaches.
We are quite sure that old Max Headroom would be pleased to know that his offspring can speak languages and don’t s-stutter anymore.
También le puede interesar:
RSS
elEconomista tv
Facebook
Twitter
Club eE
