A modern woman with a healthy glow could describe many of today's young TV presenters - but the latest addition to the Tomorrow's World team has an extra dimension. Maddy, who makes her debut on Wednesday 20th March, requires no team of make up artists, autocue or expensive Winnebago on outside broadcast - because she's driven entirely by computer.

In the finest tradition of BBC ONE's flagship science series, Tomorrow's World has created a TV first by hiring the virtual Maddy to work alongside 'real' presenters Adam Hart-Davies, Kate Humble, Roger Black and Katie Knapman for the rest of the current series.

Created by Digital Animations Group (DAG), whose ground-breaking technology drives newscaster Ananova, Maddy represents the very latest in avatar know-how. Her technical make-up even includes an artificial intelligence chat engine to test her science knowledge and give her powers to persuade ordinary mortals that she is real.

Maddy, who stands 5ft 7in tall, is sporty, well travelled and fluent in a number of languages, will interact with her co-presenters as she takes her place on set. Driven entirely by the latest version of DAG's real-time animation engine, which imbues her performance with natural movement, human characteristics and idiosyncrasies, Maddy's virtual being also incorporates speech recognition systems and speech synthesis as well as AI.

Laurie McCulloch, Development Director at DAG, says

"Maddy is ground-breaking in a number of ways. She is created using the latest evolution of our animation software, such that she performs in front of the camera - live and in real time - without using expensive motion-capture technologies. During the course of the series we will also be unveiling new animation technologies that make the facial animation smoother and more fluid to reflect the natural subtleties of skin and muscle".

"We have also integrated the Loebner prize-winning 'Alice Chat Bot' technology which has constantly outperformed other chat engines in public tests. Using this technology Maddy has been able to 'learn' about science and other general topics so that she can spontaneously respond to questions put to her".

"Virtual people, such as Maddy, offer a far more accessible way to interact with the computers and machines that dominate everyday life. The challenge is to create characters that are as lifelike and as responsive as another human being whilst capable of accessing, assimilating and filtering vast amounts of computer knowledge.

"With Tomorrow's World taking on a virtual presenter and exploring avatar technology it is becoming clear that these characters can have a role in our daily lives, whether it is on TV screens, PDA systems or PCs."