'Facemail' teams with Kodak to humanize e-mail

LifeFX is working on technology that starts bringing people, or at least their images, to real 3-D life in cyberspace

In this story: Mathematical equations used for mimicry RELATED STORIES, SITES

NEWTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- A wink, a nod, a grimace -- all can turn the meaning of a conversation on its head. And all could add a lot to an e-mail.

A Massachusetts company is bringing faces to life on the screen, using generic models who gesture and move in at least semi-realistic form as they read e-mails.

Other companies are working on similar technology, but Newton-based LifeFX got a big boost in bringing the product to the mass market this week when it announced a deal with Kodak that could let people convert their own photographs into talking, reusable Internet "stand-ins" within a year.

"The Internet was supposed to be an interactive visual medium," says Lucille Salhany, who founded LifeFX in 1999. "It turned out to be a text medium up till now."

LifeFX's free Facemail program already has become a popular download since debuting in December. The company says it is compatible with leading e-mail programs such as Microsoft Outlook, Hotmail and AOL. AOL Time Warner is the parent company of CNN.com.

Recipients who do not have Facemail installed on their machine can either read the messages as regular text e-mail or click a link to the LifeFX site to download the program.

In the future, when a friend opens an e-mail, the sender's face would read out the text. Further down the line, the computer could learn to imitate voices.

Imagine not only talking Christmas cards and yearbooks, but professors giving lectures and doctors offering advice.

Unlike streaming video, which has to be recorded, a "stand-in" can be reused infinitely, does not require a high-speed Internet connection, and it takes no more energy than writing an e-mail. The only added work is a few typed commands known as emoticons -- such as :) for a smile -- that activate different facial expressions on the "stand-in" on the recipient's computer to bring the faces to life.

Currently, seven expressions are offered: smile, wink, kiss, frown, angry, disgusted and surprised.

Big companies such as Microsoft and Apple are also working to bring faces to life on computer screens, as are smaller companies such as bioVirtual and Digimask.

Mathematical equations used for mimicry

A LifeFX "stand-in" is displayed on a computer screen at the offices of LifeFX in Newton, Mass.

LifeFX insists its models look far more realistic because of a patented technology that uses mathematical equations to mimic facial movements.

David Smith, an analyst with the Gartner Group, says photo-attachments to instant messages are already popular, and talking, moving pictures is the next logical step.

"I see the big connection with something like instant-messaging, AOL, something consumer-oriented," he says.

The Kodak deal brings credibility to LifeFX, which has seen its stock fall from $32 a share last March to $3.50 at the end of trading Tuesday, and says it doesn't expect its first revenues until the last quarter of this year. LifeFX gets to share Kodak's marketing muscle and enormous reach, which includes potentially lucrative markets like the millions of school photos Kodak processes every year. Kodak gets a share of what it thinks is the next big thing in photography.

"We're obviously interested in any potentially innovative or creative ways to allow people to do things with their pictures," said Kodak spokesman Charles Smith.

No matter what the medium, people respond better to faces than words alone, Salhany says.

"If people didn't love faces they'd watch radio," she says.

Copyright 2001 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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