Heading into the recent HCI Digital Human Workshop, I (Hans_Sales representative) was wondering how many people would attend the event. I know virtual humans are a hot topic these days, but I wasn’t sure what to expect. I am happy to report that the event was sold out, and there was not a single empty seat in the room.
Further, each of the 11 sessions, from early morning to late afternoon, was packed with people ready to learn more about digital humans. All the presenters from the digital human (AI human)-related companies were well prepared and openly shared their knowledge and experience with an eager audience.
DeepBrain AI introduced five solutions, including their digital human production platform AI STUDIOS, and their conversational platform, AI Human. Both of which can produce hyper-realistic videos using digital humans. They explained how these solutions applied unidirectional and interactive services to each industry field.
To kick off their presentation, DeepBrain AI shared an introduction video made with a digital human created by DeepBrain AI. The audience was captivated by the digital human’s natural gestures and lip sync performance. Just a few months ago, simple robot-like gestures drew a lot of attention, and it is encouraging that the technology is advancing so quickly.
Everyone who attended the event learned much information. The participating companies are all investing in R&D to create digital humans differently and develop technologies in various ways to make them more like real humans. There was also a little bit of strategy.
The possibility of service expansion through connection with the Metaverse was another hot topic. The use case of the digital human being applied to the industrial field, and three common elements (realism, real-time, interaction) as the future momentum of digital human, etc. There were so many exciting topics that I couldn’t leave my seat. The active R&D for digital humans to play various roles as their avatars in the Metaverse space suggests that the Metaverse has a very close relationship with digital humans.
In the early 2000s, cartoon-like characters were more popular than live-action-based digital humans. Characters have won enough to enter many businesses, but today, the technology has advanced so much that it is hard to differentiate between digital humans and actual humans. In addition, it satisfies people’s curiosity by mobilizing various promotional activities and marketing techniques for the methods applied to the commercial field.
It is thought that we are well beyond the “uncanny valley” of digital humans. Instead of the public’s rejection of virtual humans, the current digital human effectively communicates with people, for example, as a virtual influencer or customer support representative. Research and development of digital humans through the industry-academia-research cooperation ecosystem is rapidly progressing. Soon, you will be able to meet digital humans in many different companies.
