Vox Proxy
If you use PowerPoint, you’ll love Right Seat Software’s PowerPoint companion software Vox Proxy. The script-authoring software brings PowerPoint presentations to life by infusing them with 3-D talking animated characters. Vox Proxy helps emphasize key points, interacts with the presenter, as well as creates fun and engaging presentations that will captivate audiences with characters that speak, move and gesture. Vox Proxy’s 27 characters perform numerous “animations,” speak in multiple languages using either synthetic text-to-speech engines or actual recorded voices, respond to voice commands, and carry on interactive conversations. Each character comes with its own list of animations that it performs, which includes a number of movements, actions and emotions.
However, none of this begins to show how easy to use the program actually is. Since it interfaces with PowerPoint through a simple add-in, Vox Proxy appears directly on PowerPoint’s main menu. After installing the software, simply start PowerPoint and click on the Vox Proxy menu. From there, you can run one or more of the introductory tutorials. In addition, the program’s Script Wizard will let you point and click to modify existing scripts or create your own. The only thing you have to type is the text you want spoken. The wizard will even allow you to test or preview character animations and speech before they are inserted into your script.
A free and freely distributable Vox Proxy Player is available to run your presentations, or to include with your presentations or macros so that users who don’t have Vox Proxy can run your scripts. The Player is included with the full version of Vox Proxy or it can be downloaded from the Web site at www.voxproxy.com.
This article originally appeared in the 09/01/2004 issue of THE Journal.