Siri could well have met its match with this, a personal assistant who looks strikingly like Holly from Red Dwarf. Though seeing as it's fronted by Hollyoaks actress Zoe Lister, it's considerably easier on the eye than Norman Lovett.
Also called Zoe, the virtual "talking head" has Holly's trademark disembodied head on a black background, but it otherwise unaffiliated with the long-running sci-fi comedy. It's been developed by boffins at the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge, alongside Toshiba's Cambridge Research Lab, and can express a full range of human emotions, from anger, to joy, to sadness, IT Pro reports.
It's still just a prototype, but the program takes up just tens of megabytes, so could easily work on a smart phone or tablet as a new way to interact with your device.
"The lifelike face can display emotions such as happiness, anger and fear, and changes its voice to suit any feeling the user wants it to simulate," the university said in a statement. "Users can type in any message, specifying the requisite emotion as well, and the face recites the text." Imagine the possibilities.
"This technology could be the start of a whole new generation of interfaces which make interacting with a computer much more like talking to another human being," said Professor Roberto Cipolla, from University of Cambridge's Department of Engineering.
"It took us days to create Zoe, because we had to start from scratch and teach the system to understand the language and expression. Now that it already understands those things, it shouldn't be too hard to transfer the same blueprint to a different voice and face."
There's no word on when Zoe could find her way into our smart phones and tablets, but let's hope it's sooner rather than later.
Do you think gadgets need a more human face? Whose phizzog would you like on your phone? Or is a plain interface much more practical? Let me know in the comments, or on our Facebook page.
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Peter Hudson 23 March, 2013 14:12
If you saw the BBC report on it, it looks rubbish. It has a face that awkwardly skews with every word and it still sounds like a robot. Maybe if this was just a visual aspect to siri it would be better.
anonymous 23 March, 2013 14:40
Does anyone actually use siri or s voice, they are just rubbish even google now doesn't get used on my phone and s voice is disabled and hidden.
Patrick Cantellow 23 March, 2013 17:13
I saw the BBC Report on it and no way is it even going to be a rival to siri, it is rubbish
midfieldgeneral 23 March, 2013 21:57
They're all dead Dave
anonymous 24 March, 2013 15:55
Why should anyone be obliged to pay over-the-odds to get a synthetic voice on their smartphone? (and if you have an iPhone, you ARE paying over-the-odds) Siri iriots....It's just a racket.
anonymous 25 March, 2013 23:03
Thats not the point, the point of this is to begin intergrating a visual robotic human interaction to the world, This is exactly what the article says 'a prototp', its just the first step along the line for many to come. Just imajine walking in your home and the screen lits up a face which greets you and talks to you and takes yor commands, but this is what the future will be like...but for me, this shoild just stop right here because it will just get way too creepy from here, it opens the doors for improvements, which it will defenitaely get, and the results, well you got 'something' not somebody always listeing to you, watching you, and instead of you interacting with it, it will interact with you, belive me, first the benefits will be promoted but the negatives will be hidden, and the negatives, belive me, will definately outweigh the posatives, just watch. You want to talk to somebody then get the hell out and meet people, dont let a programme act like a human when its NOT.