Software that automatically generates timely video news bulletins, presented by computer-animated characters, could revolutionize news broadcasting.

The system, called News at Seven, can produce reports tailored to a person’s particular interests.

Using keywords entered by the user, the program selects news site RSS feeds and specific stories to focus on. The next step is to extract further key terms from these reports and use these to search for supplementary images and videos on sites like YouTube and Google Video.

Finally, the software generates a script from the collated material. Text-to-speech software then lets computer animated characters take on the role of news anchors, with the pictures and videos shown on a screen behind them.