THE WHATIS.COM WORD-OF-THE-DAY October 28, 2003 Veepers
________________ Sponsored by: CA Unicenter(R) infrastructure management software Your Infrastructure Can Manage Itself! INFRASTRUCTURE SELF-MANAGEMENT Unicenter infrastructure management software from CA enables your infrastructure to manage itself, enabling IT managers to focus more on the business of business - and not the business of maintenance. Unicenter ensures that your IT is always in sync with your business, so you can be more responsive than ever to a constantly changing marketplace. http://WhatIs.com/r/0,,18899,00.htm?track=NL-34&ca ________________ TODAY'S WORD: Veepers See our complete definition with hyperlinks at http://searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid40_gci933624,00.html?track=NL-34 Veepers is a product that is used to animate digital images of people (or other creatures) for video presentations in which the characters appear to talk. Developed by Pulse 3D, a San Francisco-based company, an animation created with Veepers can be used for a wide variety of purposes such as serving as an online customer service representative (virtual agent), a virtual teacher in an e-learning situation, or a virtual personality (avatar) in instant messaging. Mobile Veepers is a version of the application optimized for wireless applications. In a Veepers presentation, the image's eyes blink, eyebrows raise and lower, and the mouth moves in synchronization with the audio. To make this happen, the creator first selects the image to use. There are specific criteria that make an image suitable for a Veepers, such as a neutral facial expression and no eyeglasses. After you load the image, you identify facial areas by centering dots over features such as the centers and corners of the eyes and mouth. These dots are used to set parameters for a skeleton form in the background. A program component called the Audio Manager is used to coordinate lip movements to the voice, and add head movements, blinks and facial expressions. Compared to video, Veepers are much faster to develop (it takes about 20 seconds to map the facial features), less expensive to produce and modify, and result in a much smaller file that doesn't require a plug-in to view. _______________________ RELATED TERMS: virtual agent http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid11_gci900060,00.html?track=NL-34 avatar http://searchwebservices.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid26_gci211625,00.html?track=NL-34 instant messaging http://searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid40_gci510743,00.html?track=NL-34 plug-in http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci212800,00.html?track=NL-34 ______________________ SELECTED LINKS: Pulse has more information and some demos on their Veepers pages. http://www.pulse3d.com/pulse/solutions.html ABCNews describes Mobile Veepers in their article, "Almost Face to Face - New Software Animates Pictures to Voice." http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/FutureTech/avatartech030923.html ______________________ TODAY'S TECH NEWS: GATES PUTS A FACE ON FAR-AWAY LONGHORN At the Professional Developers Conference on Monday, Bill Gates and other Microsoft executives showed off the interface for the software maker's next version of Windows, which goes by the code-name Longhorn. http://searchwin2000.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid1_gci933769,00.html?track=NL-34 NETSUITE MAKES LATEST PLAY FOR UPSHOT CUSTOMERS The hosted CRM provider is out with its own migration plan for UpShot customers who may want to switch vendors once Siebel's acquisition closes. http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid11_gci933778,00.html?track=NL-34 SOBER-A WORM PRETENDS TO BE VIRUS FIX A new mass-mailing worm is in the wild, spreading via some old techniques. Sober-A does have a couple of new twists, though, including a flair for German. http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid14_gci933663,00.html?track=NL-34 >> Catch up on all the latest IT news at http://searchtechtarget.techtarget.com/?track=NL-34 ______________________ SECRET WORD-OF-THE-DAY | What is IT? This method of transfering data is used on the Starship Enterprise to transport humans and other creatures. On planet earth it might be used within a corporate enterprise to transfer data between a PDA and a laptop computer. >> See if you're right! http://searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid40_gci929540,00.html?track=NL-34 _____________________ SCARY HALLOWEEN QUIZ | Do you speak geek? Are you such a Know-IT-All that it's frightening? Find out by taking our latest quiz. Let us know how you did on the quiz and we'll enter your name in a drawing for a Halloween treat, a DiskOnKey USB keychain drive! >> Take the quiz http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci933190,00.html?track=NL-34 _____________________ LEARN IT IN 10 EASY STEPS | Educating end-users about spam Learn IT: Defeating Spam in the Enterprise. Here's how it works: We provide a little background about who is spamming (and why) and give you information about what you can do to defend yourself against the onslaught. We bet you'll be surprised by what you learn! http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci931780,00.html?track=NL-34 _____________________ FREE CHAPTER DOWNLOADS For your convenience, we've gathered links for all the free chapter downloads and book excerpts available around the TechTarget portfolio. >> Click here http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci932156,00.html?track=NL-34 ______________________________ RECENT ADDITIONS AND UPDATES [1] UHDV http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci932318,00.html?track=NL-34 [2] false positive http://searchcio.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid19_gci932649,00.html?track=NL-34 [3] Learn IT: Defeating Spam in the Enterprise http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci931780,00.html?track=NL-34 [4] trinary http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci931627,00.html?track=NL-34 [5] WYSIWYG http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci213392,00.html?track=NL-34 ____________________________________________________________________ ::::::::::::::::::: WHATIS.COM CONTACTS ::::::::::::::::::: MARGARET ROUSE, Site Editor ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) IVY WIGMORE, Consulting Editor ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) LOWELL THING, Consulting Editor and Founder ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) GABRIELLE DERUSSY, Advertising ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) ::::::::::::::::::::: ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER :::::::::::::::::::::: This newsletter is published by TechTarget, the most targeted IT media. http://www.techtarget.com?track=NL-34 Copyright 2003 TechTarget. 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