A long time ago, God created Eve. Now the French have made their own version. The new Eve likes cats, Gandhi and the footballer Zinedine Zidane. She is 162cm (5ft 4in) tall and wants to be a film star. The only problem is, she isn't real.
Eve Solal is being touted in France as the most realistic virtual star yet, capable of expressing human emotions and charming those who see her.
Her makers, Attitude Studio of Paris, claim she has a much more expressive face and mobile body than predecessors such as the virtual newsreader Ananova or Lara Croft, star of the video game Tomb Raider.
Since Christmas, Eve has had her own website but she will be officially launched in France next month with great media hoopla, including radio interviews, a five-page women's magazine feature and internet appearances.
"Soon Eve will appear in a feature film or take on the role of a presenter on an internet site or television," said Marc Viance, 24, head of Attitude Studio.
Her (real) agent, Jacques Olivier Broner of the Rouge agency in Paris, is looking for work in films, TV or video games for his client.
But Attitude Studio bosses do not want their creation to appear in a fully computer-animated film like Toy Story; rather, they want her to star opposite flesh-and-blood human actors.
But why is Eve better than her predecessors? "Ananova only exists on the internet, she's cut off at the shoulders and she has only two expressions," Mr Viance said. "And as for Lara Croft, she only appears in action situations, and she does not have much in the way of facial expressions."
Attitude Studio has used "motion capture" technology to make Eve. Cameras film the movements of an actor from different angles and these are mapped on to the virtual star using sophisticated software.
The couturier Thierry Mugler used similar technology to create a virtual mannequin to show off his spring collection last year.
To make Eve's facial expressions convincingly human, a software package called Emotion Mapper was used, which involves filtering video images of each muscle movement of a real face through computer programmes and then grafting them on to Eve's face.
Emotion Mapper is particularly easy to use when an actor is replaced in certain scenes by a virtual stunt double.
In the film The Matrix, for example, several scenes used a virtual Keanu Reeves constructed with Emotion Mapper and"motion capture" technology. Eve Solal goes one step further in that she is based not on one single human prototype, but on several.
Eve costs 2,000F (£190) a minute to produce, which gives her a competitive edge over many real movie stars.
She is the latest virtual nubile female star created by men. The first such icon, Kyoto Date, 16, was launched in Japan in 1996. Able to sing and dance, this creation briefly captivated young Japanese people and her single, Love Communication, reached the top of the Japanese charts.
Like Kyoto Date, Eve has a biography and a list of likes and dislikes. She was born on May 3 1978 just outside Paris. She weighs 48kg (7st 7lb). Her father, is a doctor and her mother is a housewife.
She exchanged her first kisses with Damien, her first love was Frederic and she has had sexual experiences, but no further details are provided.
She lives in the fashionable Parisian clubbing street of Rue de Lappe and works as a waitress. Her favourite film is LA Confidential and she likes ginger.
At present, the only way of getting in touch with Eve is by calling her on her mobile phone. "Hi," the caller is told. "This is Eve's answering machine. Leave me a message and I'll get back to you."
After leaving several messages, however, I am still waiting for a call.
Useful links
Eve Solal website
News service with virtual newscaster Ananova
