Computer Animation for Virtual Humans

dvances in computer animation techniques have spurred increasing levels of realism and movement in virtual characters that closely mimic physical reality. Increases in computational power and control methods enable the creation of 3D virtual humans for real-time interactive applications. 1 Artificial intelligence techniques and autonomous agents give computer-generated characters a life of their own and let them interact with other characters in virtual worlds. Developments and advances in networking and virtual reality (VR) let multiple participants share virtual worlds and interact with applications or each other. High-level control procedures make it possible to give behaviors to computer-generated characters that make them appear " intelligent " —that is, they interact with other characters with similar properties and respond to environmental situations in a meaningful and constructive way. Such scenarios have the potential of receiving script information as input and producing computer-generated sequences as output. Application areas include production animation and interactive computer games. In addition, researchers are currently investigating ways of having virtual humans perform complex tasks reliably. Computer-supported collaborative work (CSCW) often involves interaction and discussion about computer generated information such as models, simulations , annotations, and data accessed in shared virtual environments (VEs). Representations of users by computer generated characters (avatars) facilitate communication and interaction. An interesting question arises as to what form such avatars should take to best promote lifelike and interesting behaviors that mirror the owner, and invoke meaningful and creative responses from other avatars' owners in the virtual world. A shared experience in an artificial computer-generated world implies, in some sense, a belief that the world is real (that is, the suspension of disbelief). It's clear from research to date that creating environments that look real and believable is easier than creating moving characters that look real. Increasing the characters' fidelity doesn't necessarily increase the feeling that their world is real. Engaging users in the tasks required appears to be the first step toward making the interface transparent and enhancing the relationship with other objects or users in the virtual world. Computer-generated games such as " Doom " and the SimNet tank interface 2 both get the user to concentrate on task performance at an early stage. Pausch et al. 3 also reported similar results. Avatars and agents have an interesting relationship. An agent personalizes information. The presence of avatars and agents in the same environment seems a fruitful area for further work. Current evidence suggests …