Special Report
The First Virtual Humans Conference Evolution in Cyberspace
By Sue Wilcox
What do worms, robots, and Marilyn Monroe have in common? They were all featured at the first Virtual Humans conference. "Virtual humans" is an emerging specialization in the field of virtual-reality research, focusing on the representation of humans in computer-generated virtual worlds. Virtual humans, or "avatars," are being used in 3D multiuser communities, and in video and computer games that require human models. The speakers represented all parts of the 3D community: academics, commercial animators, and hardware and software developers all united to share techniques and technologies to make virtual humans evolve faster.
Professors Nadia and Daniel Thalmann, notable VR trail blazers from Swiss universities, were two of the key speakers at the conference, held June 19-20 in Anaheim, CA. Nadia Thalmann reviewed the development of Marilyn, a virtual human and a new software release. Marilyn is Marilyn Monroe modeled in 3D and given physics-based behavior and clothing. The famous figure gave everyone a chance to compare the model with the memory. Achieving beauty, human movement, and expressive functions is an elusive goal. Animators have long known it's easier to make a cartoon than a realistic figure. People are experts at spotting fake humans, even if they've never seen one before. Nevertheless, Professor Thalmann feels she is 90 percent of the way to reality.
Modeling Human Behavior
"Reality" is made up of four layers: skeleton, metaballs or implicit surfaces for muscles, contours, and a spline-based skin.
