Karena could be the fastest
news service
on the planet
The EDP’s own virtual newsreader has become the first to broadcast globally on the biggest online social community in the world.
Karena now has her own Myspace profile page, commanding a potential audience of 55 million people.
Her profile features EDP Interactive’s virtual reality-based bulletins, which provide a news-on-demand service, allowing users to access the news exactly as and when they want, and which also feature on EDP24. Using a combination of TV technology and advanced graphic computing skills, the service combines video and animation sequences which collate news as it arrives via the EDP newsdesk, and compiles it into an internet television-style news bulletin, read by Karena. Karena’s creator l Tim Child said: “It’s potentially the fastest such information service in Britain.
“And now it’s the fastest on the planet.”
He said other news providers BskyB, BBC Newsnight and ITN had put themselves on SecondLife, an online community game, but it did not support speech, which he had taken advantage of on Myspace, allowing Karena to operate without limits.
And he promised more was to come. “This is the sort of technology breakthrough which makes our day, but it doesn’t end there.
“It’s one thing to operate a news service via these massive new media communities, but our next hurdle will be embedding an inter-active entertainer, powered by artificial intelligence.”
But Mr Child would not be drawn on whether the entertainer would also be based on Carina West. Since operating from the EDP website Karena has delivered almost 30,000 news bulletins to more than 17,500 different people.
Visit www.myspace.com/ easterndailypress
or www.myspace.com/ televirtual August 3, 2007 |
Meet Karena - EDP24's
internet newscaster
She's a successful model and mother-of-three, and now she's become
the world's first custom-built internet newscaster.
Carina West, from Thorpe Marriott, Norwich was picked from hundreds
of models and actresses, to become the new face of internet news
on the EDP's award-winning website.
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Model Carina West, left and Karena and Brian. |
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Using a combination of state-of-art TV technology and advanced
graphic computing skills, the award-winning team at Norwich's Televirtual
MediaLAb, have transformed Carina into the high-tech Karena.
The technique which Televirtual boss Tim Child calls videogrammetry,
involves splicing and blending taped TV sequences of Carina, with
reconstructed still images of the 35-year-old Thorpe Marriott housewife.
Reconstructed, because, because individual features such as eyes,
mouth, nose and eyebrows, have all been captured piecemeal to allow
interactive computer control of the assembled image.
Karena replaces Brian who came online on March 14, 2007, as part of
a unique project pioneered by three Norwich companies and a national
sports information service.
He is the front end of Newsfast - a system that has taken about
a year and a half to develop and is now under trial on the EDP24
website with WeatherQuest and PA Sport providing additional information.
For Carina, the process of becoming Karena, began with a five
hour filming session at the former Anglia TV studios which are now
Norwich's EPIC - or East of England Production Innovation Centre.
It was the first time EPIC had used the new High Definition (HDTV)
cameras, acquired as part of its £2m modernisation.
But what does Carina think of Karena. "Absolutely great! -
but also strangely bizarre. I mean: it's me, and yet it’s
also, not me." The next big approval hurdle for Carina, will
be her three sons, aged nine, eight and almost two. "I expect
they'll be fine about it", she said. "They're boys, and
as its on computers, they'll just think its cool."
As Karena, the end result will replace Brian, who was the EDP's
first virtual newsreader. Brian launched the first RSS-based instant
news-reading service from Archant a month ago. RSS stands for rich
(web)site summary increasingly its the place where breaking news
is stored first by most news gathering organisations.
Brian, who unlike Karena, was not based upon any one real person,
won't be retired, but will revert to his original designed role,
as an emergency services information announcer.
"Brian was never really intended as a general newsreader",
Tim Child explained, "but he's been an able stand-in while
we perfected the techniques to transform Carina into Karena".
In finished form, Karena does not speak with Carina's voice. Instead,
Karena is completely computer-operated. Her synthetic voice, or
text-to-speech engine, has been developed by speech experts Nuance,
and involves more than 30 hours of recording a real voice artist,
after which the "voice" is spliced together using a technique
similar to that used to assemble Karena's video image.
Patrick Prekopp, EDP24 Web Editor said: “Brian has generated
quite a bit of interest – not all in terms of his broadcasting
talents, it has to be said. However, Karena is much better looking,
closer to the real thing and it’s hard to see the joins. The
technology is just amazing and we’re thrilled to be part of
the action.”
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