When you go to Oddcast's Web site, you are greeted - literally - with a talking character (http://www.oddcast.com). The animated model introduces the company with full lip synchronization, facial movement, and eye contact.

Oddcast allows clients to create their own animated characters, and their most recent offering, SitePal for eBay, provides sellers with simple tools to create talking characters to enhance auction listings.

"Our philosophy is to allow our clients to create, as easily as possible, Web site-enhancing characters that speak and help sell their products," says Adi Sideman, Founder and CEO of Oddcast, Inc. His flagship product, VHost Studio, is an easy-to-use authoring tool that allows users to create and embed customized animated characters within HTML pages, ad banners, emails, and Flash movies.

What inspired this peerless product? "Oddcast was licensing video mixers and other user-generated products for the consumer market," says Sideman. "At one point, we pondered what else users could create and use to communicate. The answer was "talking heads." So, it started as a consumer product and as it became increasingly professional, it became a serious business solution."

At the SitePal Web site (http://www.sitepal.com), auction sellers can watch the demo clip to get a feel for how to create virtual salespeople. "It's like putting together a Mr. Potatohead," Sideman explains. "You design the character using levers and buttons. Then you choose your dialog, record it, press a button, it embeds the sound, and the character is born. It's extremely easy to use. Clients don't even have to know HTML."

Oddcast now has a distribution relationship with Andale to offer the SitePal for eBay product (http://www.sitepal.com/andale). For $19 per month or $199 a year, the package allows you to include custom animations in up to five concurrent eBay auctions.

"We have over 300 clients currently using SitePal to enhance their auctions," says Sideman. "Some of them report that when their auction listings include a virtual sales person introducing their product, these auctions close higher than their other listings. The human speech and a lifelike quality of the product let our sellers personalize the sale and communicate the value of their products more effectively."

As part of the process, sellers record their own dialog with a PC microphone or over the telephone. For an additional fee, they can opt for professional recording services using a specified range of voice talent (aggressive, gentle, melodic, male, female, etc.)

Want to see this on a live auction? Check out listings by camera and electronic component seller nowinc (http://stores.ebay.com/nowinc. Susan Moore of Now Inc. in Greatland, Texas, says, "We are incredibly happy with both the program and the sales results. The success of any online auction is attributable to several factors, of course, but including the virtual sales rep has definitely made a huge difference. Our sales have increased by 25% since we started using it."

Moore starts her auctions at a penny or slightly higher, and uses the SitePal character animation to describe her products. "It's so easy to use," Moore adds. "We added the professional voiceover, and even with that we had it up and running in 48 hours."

For some varied examples, check the VHost eBay Store intro at CMV Gifts and Angel Scents (http://www.cmvgiftsandangelscents.com). Linda Calderon, eBay user xymcyn9, has a virtual singer croon about her teapot http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=20634&item=4326138785.

In a trancelike state, I gazed at that Oddcast model's changing facial expressions, wondering if she'd scratch her head or burp or something. Maybe a future offering will include custom peccadilloes? For now, though, this is a serious sales tool and definitely one to check out.