LET'S PUT TWO AND TWO

LET’S PUT TWO AND TWO TOGETHER: A while back, we mentioned the Robo-Scribe, the robot news reporter. Last week, the New York Times ran an articled called Where the News, but Almost Nothing Else, Is Real. It’s about the construction of a virtual reality set for KJTV’s news in Lubbock, Texas.

The set, an enormous high-ceilinged room, would have remote-controlled cameras capable of swooping above and around it. Announcers would be able to take an open elevator up to a sweeping second story and walk across the exposed higher floor.

But this set would not be an elaborate wood, glass and metal affair. It would exist virtually, inside the hard drive of a Silicon Graphics workstation and the brain cells of its viewers.

OK, we’ve got the robot reporter, we’ve got the virtual reality set, need I say more?

Hey, Max Headroom, tanned, rested and ready…