KEY POINTS:
Meet "Islander Lady" - an early prototype for the first of a large family of Kiwi interactive computer characters, becoming available to schools under a deal announced yesterday.
School students will be able to use the interactive computer programs to make animations in class - a move some claim can cut truancy and increase learning.
The program, originally developed in Australia, will be given a facelift to make it more relevant to New Zealand.
Unlike her Australian counterpart "Auntie", Islander Lady - as she's currently known - wears a tropical flower in her hair, a bone carving around her neck and is likely to smile and blow a kiss instead of giving the thumbs-up.
Her programmed voice is set to be recorded in the United States, but users will be able to record their own voice and it will automatically sync with the character.
"[Yesterday in training] a lady's come up and she was singing in one of the Maori dialects. The character, of course, just beautifully sang that back - it was awesome," said J. Easterby-Wood, creator of the high-tech computer program Marvin in which Islander Lady features.
She will be initially joined by a Maori warrior character, who will have a moko, and two Kiwi children figures.
Marvin's range of New Zealand-styled characters will be expanded to number about 50 in the next few years.
In the meantime, the software and about 100 existing characters will be free to schools in a multimillion-dollar deal by Microsoft, as part of its Partners in Learning program.
New Zealand was the first country in the international deal to launch Marvin.
Mr Easterby-Wood said it was likely the programme would be used for "embarrassing" topics or subjects that teachers struggled to engage students in.
"In Australian schools, and especially in the remote communities, a lot of the projects were based upon nutrition or bullying or sexual health," he said.
Pupils used the programme to create 3-dimensional animations about a topic by writing the stories, recording the scripts and making the backgrounds.
MEET AUNTIE
Name: Auntie Islander Lady.
Nationality: Australian New Zealander.
Wears: Baggy, full-length colourful dress, bone carving and tropical flower in her hair.
Action: Smiles and blows a kiss.
Source: Marvin
