Whether its a powerful tool for improving training, presentation and customer support—or a creator of freaky talking images reminiscent of late-night comedy shows—Pulse Veepers is undeniably cool technology.
This very easy-to-use application from Pulse Entertainment made it possible for me to create a videolike presentation in about 3 minutes using just an image file and an audio file. To use it, I simply loaded an image of a person, followed simple steps to highlight eyes, face and mouth, then converted the audio file. The resulting content could be viewed in a Web page using a plug-in player that works with most browsers and runs on Windows and Mac OS. In addition to audio files, Pulse Veepers supports text-to-voice use.
The resulting file plays like a video, with normal head and mouth movement and blinking. Audio doesnt need to be synced; Pulse Veepers reacts to the voice in a way similar to those singing fish you can buy in department stores. I found the resulting video impressive if a little freaky (although still more lifelike than Steve Forbes).
I did find one subject that seemed natural as a Pulse Veeper: eWeeks very own Spencer F. Katt. (Click here to see the results.)
At $50,000 for an enterprise license, Pulse Veepers could be considered cost-effective when compared with using video professionals and high-level streaming. Compared with a digital camera and QuickTime Pro, however, it seems pretty darn expensive. For more information, go to www.pulse3d.com.