Procedural Animation of Conversational Gestures for Virtual Humans

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Two Ontario colleges and two Quebec cégeps are collaborating on co-creation of a prototype, open-source systems solution for the procedural animation of conversation gestures in Virtual Humans (VHs). Led by Sheridan College's Screen Industries Research and Training Centre (SIRT), Durham College's Hub for Applied Research in Artificial Intelligence for Business Solutions (AI Hub) and Mixed Reality Capture Studio (MRC), Cégep de Matane's Centre de développement et de recherche en intelligence numérique (CDRIN) and the Cégep de Rivière-du-Loup's Le Living Lab en innovation ouverte (LLio), the research team will conduct dual-language, cross-sectoral research and development focused on procedural animation workflows that incorporate advanced, data-driven analysis and leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to allow for automation and procedural generation of complex VH movements, including hand, limb, body movement. A diverse group of researchers and students from Canadian institutions will conduct research and development using a human-centered design approach in collaboration with leading companies, including SpinVFX, Ubisoft, Transitional Forms, ReImagine AI, AMD Canada, etc. Canadian companies currently employ, or are in the process of developing, their own Virtual Humans pipelines, primarily for film & television productions, and realtime productions for interactive games and entertainment. As consumers expect increasingly realistic, believable, and interactive VHs within entertainment, and VHs are used more frequently within systems for training, simulation, healthcare, etc., applied research and development is needed to target the challenges of procedural generation to improve the intelligence of VH actions while reducing the amount of time needed to convincingly animate VHs. Research will provide companies with a significant competitive advantage by refining existing VH solutions to better capture customers needs, expanding VH solutions into new market segments, and by creating disruptive innovation with new products and services. An open-source gesture database will offer an effective resource to raise the state-of-the art for animation in Canada. Companies will be able to improve existing systems, processes, and products by integrating the open-source system and further develop and/or develop proprietary applications of the projects outcomes.