Zoesis Studios Launches New Activities at TheLivingLetters.com, the Internet's Only Expanding Theme Park For Children.Entertainment Editors NEWTON, Mass.--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--Jan. 16, 2001 Interactive Characters Reach New Levels of Emotion and Awareness Zoesis Studios, an animation studio Animation studio can refer to:
TheLivingLetters.com theme park, called Letter Land, grows with new activities every eight weeks. Today, "Magic Snowball" and "Photoshoot" join five premier features released in Fall 2000. Zoesis artists have endowed the interactive character in Magic Snowball with compelling feelings and awareness never before seen on the Web. The attractions star two loveable love·a·ble adj. Variant of lovable. Adj. 1. loveable - having characteristics that attract love or affection; "a mischievous but lovable child" lovable characters named Iris and Otto. Iris is a coy character based Refers to the use of fixed size fonts or to using text commands, all of which are in contrast to a graphical interface (graphics based). See text based. on the letter i. Otto is a warm and goofy character based on the letter o. In the new attractions, the user participates actively and positively by engaging Otto in a whimsical game of volleyball on ice and by snapping pictures of Otto and Iris as they vie for the camera's attention. Taking Zoesis art and technology to new levels of sophistication so·phis·ti·cate v. so·phis·ti·cat·ed, so·phis·ti·cat·ing, so·phis·ti·cates v.tr. 1. To cause to become less natural, especially to make less naive and more worldly. 2. , the creators have made Otto more responsive, emotional and alive than in previous attractions. In the five other Letter Land activities, the user plays goalie on a soccer field, helps Otto work out to cool techno music, plays tag with Iris and Otto, designs Iris's costume, and conducts Otto in his operatic efforts. Both Otto and Iris have emotional responses to the user's actions and behave like real, individual personalities. The engaging characters create a positive and fun computer-based experience for children and their parents. One young user was so enamored en·am·or tr.v. en·am·ored, en·am·or·ing, en·am·ors To inspire with love; captivate: was enamored of the beautiful dancer; were enamored with the charming island. of the characters that she crafted her own clay models of Otto and Iris. Another exclaimed "Enjoy, but don't show your parents because they'll hog it for themselves." The Zoesis Studios team brings 15 years of the most advanced artificial intelligence and art research to market with TheLivingLetters.com. Zoesis Studios is developing the art and technology of artificial intelligence-based interactive characters, called Interactive Theater, which allows people to become actively engaged with believable characters in a computer-animated world. The computer-animated characters appear to be alive, aware of the user, thoughtful and emotional. The company's founders and creative talent believe TheLivingLetters.com represents a potent art form because it is a new way of combining the power of rich movie-like characters with the interactivity found in video games See video game console. . Unlike existing video games or movie scripts, however, TheLivingLetters.com incorporates live theater techniques by creating autonomy within the characters' minds. Users, and even the characters' creators, do not know what the characters will do next or how the characters will respond to a particular action. Pricing TheLivingLetters.com is currently free of charge. Technical Requirements A typical 200MHz (MegaHertZ) One million cycles per second. It is used to measure the transmission speed of electronic devices, including channels, buses and the computer's internal clock. A one-megahertz clock (1 MHz) means some number of bits (16, 32, 64, etc. IBM-compatible computer or later model running Microsoft Windows See Windows. (operating system) Microsoft Windows - Microsoft's proprietary window system and user interface software released in 1985 to run on top of MS-DOS. Widely criticised for being too slow (hence "Windoze", "Microsloth Windows") on the machines available then. 95, 98 or ME and a 28.8 kbps or better modem with Internet access See how to access the Internet. using a standard Web browser The program that serves as your front end to the Web on the Internet. In order to view a site, you type its address (URL) into the browser's Location field; for example, www.computerlanguage.com, and the home page of that site is downloaded to you. (Internet Explorer Microsoft's Web browser, which comes with Windows starting with Windows 98. Commonly called "IE," versions for Mac and Unix are also available. Internet Explorer is the most widely used Web browser on the market. It has also been the browser engine in AOL's Internet access software. 4 or higher or Netscape Version 4.x) are recommended for optimum performance. No unusual multimedia accessories, hardware or software are necessary. About Zoesis Studios Zoesis Studios, located in Newton, Massachusetts, was launched in Pittsburgh in 1996 when Joseph Bates, a senior professor of Computer Science and Fine Art at Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University, at Pittsburgh, Pa.; est. 1967 through the merger of the Carnegie Institute of Technology (founded 1900, opened 1905) and the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research (founded 1913). , founded the company with three Ph.D. members of his research team and several key artists. The company moved to Boston in 1997, where it continues to hire artists, researchers, and programmers who come from theater, traditional character animation, and the computer science research community. The company received financial backing as well as technical collaboration from Fujitsu Limited, one of the largest computer corporations in the world. A second round of financing will be sought in 2001. Further information about Zoesis Studios can be located on the World Wide Web at www.zoesis.com. All trademarks, service marks, product and company names are the properties of their respective owners. |
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