If She’s Pretty and Asian… She’s Probably a Computerized Virtual Composite

NOTE: Made a video about this. Watch it!

So you’re trying to sell some candy in Japan (Glico’s Ice Nomi), and you sign  a pop band that appears to be an SNL parody of Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show (see “fun fact” at end).

Sales are up, but you decide you could sell another 30% of your little sweet and sour confections if only you had a hotter chick endorsing it. Sadly, you’ve picked the best available based humans on in-depth studies of the physical traits that arouse boys and girls… and a DNA composite will set you back two years.

So, duh, you manufacturer a virtual girl, compiled from a composite of the existing girls of the AKB48 band, and you call her it Aimi Eguchi. How much harder can that be than manufacturing virtual candy? Sure news will slip that she’s a fake (see how-to below), but most people won’t know or care. And perhaps weirder than the story itself is this quote from Channel News Asia:

Although Eguchi is not a real person, some observers say she possesses the purest essence of what an idol is – a completely artificial persona created by putting together the traits that fans love the most.

But is that true? I think not. To truly generate the “trait fans love most,” I would suggest turning this “make your own creepy avatar” feature into a “pick your favorite facial features” algorithm. Go ahead and make your own if you have patience for apparently hologram graphics, Japanese text, and music that makes my ears bleed.

Watch the video below at :50 to see how they composited this virtual star.

This girl is not real. I repeat. This girl is not real.

Fun Factoid: Kim Evey plays the host on Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show, is the producer of The Guild (Felicia Day), and is the virtual wife of Greg Benson (MediocreFilms). Here’s her debut, where Benson had his Hollywood friends create Evey v1.2 (at the time she was called XB09-23).