#Visual capture skin

People often describe computer-generated animation that tends toward human realism as seeing zombies or talking cadavers. A frustrating problem, as mentioned in Section 1.1, is the uncanny valley. The USC Institute for Creative Technologies see Figure 10.16. Some of the best synthetic matching performed to date has been by researchers at Highly accurate matching might also be made by constructing synthetic models, or combining information from both imaging and synthetic sources. For example, a picture of the user's face could be texture mapped onto the avatar face.

#Visual capture skin

To further improve realism, texture mapping could be used to map skin and clothes onto the avatar. Other simple matching such as hair color, skin tone, and eye color could be performed. The first kind of similarity could start to match the person by making a kinematic model in the virtual world (recall Section 9.4) that corresponds in size and mobility to the actual person.

Behavioral appearance: How closely do the avatar's motions match the body language, gait, facial expressions, and other motions of the person?.

Auditory appearance: How much does the sound coming from the avatar match the voice, language, and speech patterns of the person?.

Visual appearance: How close does the avatar seem to the actual person in terms of visible characteristics?.

Based on the current technology, three major kinds of similarity can be independently considered: Now consider moving toward physical realism. (b) Geometric models are animated along with sophisticated rendering techniques to produce realistic facial movement. The Digital Emily project from 2009: (a) A real person is imaged. Hollywood movies over the past decades have been filled with animated characters, and we have the opportunity to embody some of them while inhabiting a virtual world! People were delightfully surprised in 1986 when Pixar brought a desk lamp to life in the animated short Luxo Jr. Imagine if you could have people perceive you as if you as an alien, an insect, an automobile, or even as a talking block of cheese. For example, a group of children might want to inhabit the bodies of animals while talking and moving about. Users may also want to experiment with other forms of embodiment. For example, people might develop a sense of empathy if they are able to experience the world from an avatar that appears to be different in terms of race, gender, height, weight, age, and so on. The user might want to live a fantasy, or try to see the world from a different perspective. In a phenomenon called the Proteus effect, it has been observed that a person's behavior changes based on the virtual characteristics of the avatar, which is similar to the way in which people have been known to behave differently when wearing a uniform or costume.

One major appeal of an avatar is anonymity, which offers the chance to play a different role or exhibit different personality traits in a social setting. Many other possibilities exist along this spectrum, and it is worth considering the tradeoffs. In this case, it may seem as if the person were teleported directly from the real world to the virtual world. At the other extreme, a user might be captured using imaging technology and reproduced in the virtual world with a highly accurate 3D representation see Figure 10.15. At one extreme, a user may represent himself through an avatar, which is a 3D representation that might not correspond at all to his visible, audible, and behavioral characteristics see Figure 10.14. A clear spectrum of possibilities exists. How should others see you in VR? This is one of the most intriguing questions because it depends on both the social context and on the technological limitations. A 3D representation of a person is extracted in real time and superimposed in the world, as seen through augmented reality glasses (Hololens). Holographic communication research from Microsoft in 2016.