Previous |
Next New Review for Patent Disputed by Microsoft and U. of California |
June 04, 2007, 09:54 AM ET
Virtual Chats Get Real
Online meetings are getting a dose of reality, thanks to researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Central Florida. In a computer, people's virtual faces and bodies can react to a conversation in real time, according to a report in the Chicago Tribune today.
People already can meet via computer, but their online representatives--computer-generated, cartoonlike images used in virtual worlds like Second Life or a variety of instant-messaging services--are frozen still-life pictures, at least as far as facial expressions go.
Body language and facial reactions are important parts of communication, however. So researchers at Illinois's Electronic Visualization Laboratory and their colleagues are using cameras to capture a real person's responses in a conversation, and developing programs that feed them to an animated virtual counterpart. --Josh Fischman
Add Your Comment
Commenting is closed.