Virtual News Readers for the Virtual World

This is a pretty neat use of Virtual Avatars to present news reports that are automatically combined using images and blogs from all over the world. It's a unique experiment by a couple of Computer Science graduate students at the Northwestern University’s Intelligent Information Laboratory (InfoLab).

News at Seven is an automatic system that crafts daily news shows. It finds the news you are interested in; edits it; finds relevant images, videos, and external opinions; and then presents it all using a virtual news team working in a virtual studio. News at Seven is a uniquely compelling experience that can present traditional news--augmented with supplemental images, videos, and opinions from the blogosphere—all without human intervention.

News at Seven