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Berkie in Zoom

An animation prototype for Berkie's video feed. Pick a state to see how Berkie behaves as a meeting participant, and compare three ways of showing that it's talking.

Berkie (AI)
State
Talking style
Feed background

How it holds up at real sizes

Berkie (AI)
Gallery view, medium meeting
Berkie (AI)
Gallery view, large meeting
Profile photo as-is: the tail and hand side get clipped
Profile photo inset: recommended for camera-off moments

What each state is for

  • Idle. Slow breathing, a blink every few seconds, and an occasional glance, so Berkie reads as present without pulling focus.
  • Listening. Slight head tilt, eyes a bit wider, a slow nod. Signals Berkie is following, useful when it's recording themes.
  • Thinking. Eyes look up and drift, a soft light sweeps the visor, three dots pulse. Covers model latency so silence doesn't feel broken.
  • Hand raised. A hand pops up from behind the bubble with a short wave, then holds. Pairs with Zoom's own raise-hand icon.
  • Speaking. Driven by the live voice level. The speech-bubble shape already says "talker," so motion can stay small.

Hooks for engineering

The animation takes two inputs: a state, and a voice level from 0 to 1 sampled from the TTS audio (about 30 times per second). Without a level, speaking uses a simulated voice.

berkie.setState('thinking');
berkie.setState('speaking');
berkie.setLevel(0.72);   // per audio frame
berkie.setState('hand');

Render the page at 1280×720, 30fps, as the bot's camera feed. Motion never flashes, which keeps it safe for photosensitive viewers.