Creepy Computer-Generated Avatar Greets Travelers At Newark Liberty

Port Authority Of N.Y./N.J. Spends $180,000 On New 'Help' For Area Airports

NEWARK, N.J. (CBSNewYork) — The future was among the arrivals at Newark Airport on Friday, in the form of a computer-generated greeter at the gate.

Travelers met “Libby.” She’s Newark Airport’s newest — and perhaps most chipper — customer service rep. You may have noticed that she’s a bit shallow, and she’s completely two-faced, but she’s always smiling, and she never complains.

“Hello, and welcome to Newark Liberty International Airport. You have arrived at Terminal B,” the avatar says.

Libby’s presence seemed to catch arriving passengers off-guard Friday. Some loved her … or it, but not everyone was enchanted by her computer-generated smile, CBS 2’s Alex Denis reported.

“It’s a little bit freaky when you walk down there. Her body doesn’t look real but her head does,” one woman said.

“It’s freaky!” another woman said.

“I think it’s weird,” another said.-[First Article]

 

Airmen To Live Out Their Careers In Cyberspace

ORLANDO, Fla. — Air Force officials anticipate a world in which every recruit receives an avatar upon joining the service.

These avatars would follow airmen through their entire careers, earning promotions and educational credits and even moving with them to new offices and bases.

This would take place in simulated worlds that mirror the service’s actual facilities.
“Everyone who comes into the Air Force will be given an avatar, and that avatar travels with them, grows with them, changes appearance with them,” said Larry Clemons, of the Air Education and Training Command. “It will provide them a history of where they’ve been and a notion of where they’re going.”

It’s part of the Air Force’s MyBase program, a plan to modernize the service’s education and marketing initiatives. The effort dates back to early 2008, when Air Education and Training Command released a paper outlining next-generation learning environments complete with virtual worlds, online classes and aggressive outreach strategies involving webcam chats with potential recruits and online contract forms.

The initiative is still in its test stages, and officials later will decide whether to carry it out in full.

The Air Force has already launched the marketing campaign component of MyBase. At this year’s Defense GameTech Users’ Conference, Clemons took audience members on a tour of the service’s publicly available cyberhub, a mock base where it hopes to attract new recruits.

The base exists in Second Life, a virtual world that is inhabited by millions of avatars controlled by the program’s users. It was created in 2003 by a company called Linden Lab. The Air Force now owns 12 regions of Second Life land — which is sold on a real estate market for real-life dollars...

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