No, not THAT Virtual Eve. This one.

Take a digital puppet animated in real time, combine it with devices to accept input from the student (i.e. webcam, microphone, etc.), and you've got a virtual teacher / tutoring system which is designed to be responsive to even the emotional state of the student. "Linked to a child via computer, the animated character or virtual tutor can tell if the child is frustrated, angry or confused by the on-screen teaching session and can adapt the tutoring session appropriately."

The adaptive nature of this kind of system can really only be effective in real time... in machinima. There's a demo video at the bottom of the article, but it's hard to get a feel for the interactivity from what they show. But given recent advances in facial recognition, biometrics, etc. it does all seem very plausible.

I'm wondering if "Easy with Eve" is powered by iClone technology? Is it me, or does Virtual Eve bear a striking resemblance to the default iClone female character?