'Emily' will set a new precedent for photo-realistic characters in video games and films, says her creator, Image Metrics Jonathan Richards.

Extraordinarily lifelike characters are to begin appearing in films and computer games thanks to a new type of animation technology.

Emily was produced using a new modelling technology that enables the most minute details of a facial expression to be captured and recreated.

She is considered to be one of the first animations to have overleapt a long-standing barrier known as 'uncanny valley' - which refers to the perception that animation looks less realistic as it approaches human likeness.

Researchers at a Californian company which makes computer-generated imagery for Hollywood films started with a video of an employee talking. They then broke down down the facial movements down into dozens of smaller movements, each of which was given a 'control system'.

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