If spending too much time online turns you into your evil twin, then it might be time for a "cybertwin."
An Australian upstart on Monday introduced MyCyberTwin, an early version of software that lets people create and customize a virtual personality that can chat with others while they're offline. Liesl Capper, co-founder of RelevanceNow, which built MyCyberTwin, said the so-called chat bot technology can be used on blogs, dating sites or in social networks like MySpace by cutting and pasting code from the site onto the third-party page.
Capper describes the software as an extension of your personality online. "It can talk to friends when you're sleeping or tell people where the party is Saturday night," she said.
Virtual personalities are not new, but MyCybertwin could take the trend of instant-messaging avatars like Yahoo's and Second Life personas in a new direction.
The MyCybertwin service lets people pick one of five basic personalities, such as "warm-hearted, intellectual" or "cheeky, down to earth," and then have that choice act as a chat proxy to friends or strangers. But a subscriber can also tailor their persona further by answering a set of psychological questions, like "Is success a motivator for you?" giving the chat bot more complexity.
RelevanceNow has built tools to evaluate a person's psychographics, which classify attitudes and values, likes and dislikes. The more information the software has, the more "personality" the chat bot will have.
People also can write out answers to commonly asked questions so that their chat bot will respond in that manner, or they can prompt a cybertwin to ask specific questions of others, such as "What is the most important thing in your life?" People can review their friend's answers by looking in the log that MyCyberTwin keeps of all conversations. Capper said the service can also handle FAQs for bloggers, company brands or other well-known people who maintain a Web site.
"Sites and bloggers will want them so that people can learn about them when they're away. And companies can learn about customers without having direct conversations," Capper said.
Chamtech's spray-on antenna uses a nano material to provide a low-power boost to antenna range. The wireless-in-a-can product may some day bring an end to unsightly cell towers.
Whether Apple will release a new iPad next month doesn't seem to be the question as much as what day it will happen. A new rumor has it down to the day.
Tommy Jordan, the man who shot his daughter's laptop for YouTube, gets a visit from police and child protection services. Oh, and Good Morning America.
Along with green-lighting Google's buy of Motorola, the Justice Department today OKs an Apple-Microsoft-RIM partnership deal to buy Nortel patents, and Apple's plan to acquire Novell patents.
EnerG2 opens a plant to make an engineered carbon that will improve performance of energy storage devices and make storage for start-stop hybrid cars less expensive.
"Never Stop Playing" campaign for upcoming portable marks Sony's largest platform launch marketing spend, with ads to reach YouTube, Facebook, TV, and billboards in major cities.
As UC Berkeley students, the co-founders of "Back to the Roots" discovered they could grow mushrooms using recycled coffee grounds. Now their mushroom kit sells at grocery stores across the country.
