The "Agent Framework" is a development platform for character-centric application prototypes beyond film and video games. The open source structure allows for implementation of complex technologies like computer vision, synthetic speech, AI and alternative input devices within a user-friendly authoring environment. Characters with a sophisticated facial deformation system are also provided under the Creative Commons License.
The Agent Framework features: • Simple prototyping of interactive character based scenarios • GPU accelerated deformations system based on the Adaptable Facial Setup • High quality real-time rendering of humanoid characters • Sophisticated facial animation system for emotionally believable characters • Various characters released under the Creative Commons License
The goal of the Agent Framework is to identify new applications for interactive, character based content. This is perfectly illustrated by the cooperation with psychologists from the University Medical Center Freiburg. They applied an early version of the Framework in a pilot study for the "Categorical Perception of Emotional Facial Expressions in Video Clips with Natural and Artificial Actors". Those were comparing the performance of children with autism spectrum disorders to typically developing children. The results showed that our computer generated characters can act as emotionally believable as video taped actors. Additionally the controllability of the facial actions turned out to be much more stable than those of the video taped actors.
For FMX 2010 the team worked on an interactive conference guide. The prototype demonstrates completely dynamic content which was enhanced by participant identification via computer vision and advanced character nodes for dynamic behaviour control.
Agenda
