Autonomous Virtual Humans in Virtual Environments

 

Nadia Magnenat Thalmann

MIRALab, University of Geneva,
Switzerland
http://miralabwww.epfl.ch
 

Daniel Thalmann

Commputer Graphics Lab, Swiss
Federal Institute of Technology
Lausanne, Switzerland
http://ligwww.epfl.ch
 
 
 

Description

This course first presents the concept of autonomous virtual actors and the main techniques to create and animate them. It presents the  general concept of behavioral animation and autonomous actors reacting to their environment and taking decisions based on perception systems, memory and reasoning. The concept of virtual sensors (virtual vision, audition, and tactile) will be explained with examples of sensor-based navigation and games. Then, the interaction between virtual humans will be discussed with examples in social behavior, group behavior, and crowd behavior.  The course will also discuss facial animation techniques for virtual actors and communication with them. Finally, the interaction between real humans and autonomous virtual humans inside the virtual space will be presented with applications in telecooperative work.
 

Detailed outline

Introduction: Avatars versus Autonomous Virtual Humans

A Survey of Techniques for Realtime Behavioral Human Animation

Real-time Behavioral Animation and autonomy

 
Interaction with Autonomous Virtual Actors

Presenter Biographies

name: Nadia Magnenat Thalmann
title: Professor
postal address: MIRALab-CUI, University of Geneva, 24 rue du G=8En=8Eral-
Dufour, CH 1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland
work phone number: +41-22-705-7769
home phone number: +41-22-348-6906
fax number: +41-22-320-2927
email: thalmann@cui.unige.ch

Professor Nadia Magnenat Thalmann has contributed to  pionneer  Canadian   and European research into Virtual Humans for over 15 years,  and has participated to spectacular state-of-the-art demonstrations and  rigorous and intensive academic research programs that make them  possible. After her PhD in Quantum  Physics and Computer Graphics   from the University of  Geneva, she has been a Professor at the University   of  Montreal in  Canada  from l977 to 1988. In l987, she was nominated  woman of the year by the  Montreal Community. In l989, In Switzerland,  she founded Miralab , a  Research Lab at the University of Geneva. She  has received several Awards, including the 1985 Communications Award  from the Government of Quebec, the l992 Moebius Award  from the  European Community and the British Computer Science  Award in l993.
 

name: Daniel Thalmann
title: Professor
address:  Computer Graphics Lab, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
    CH 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
work phone number: +41-21-693-5214
home phone number: +41-22-348-6906
fax number: +41-21-693-5328
email: thalmann@di.epfl.ch

Daniel Thalmann is full professor and director of the Computer Graphics   Laboratory at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. He   received his diploma in nuclear physics and a PhD in computer science   from the University of Geneva. Thalmann is coeditor-in-chief of the  Journal of Visualization and Computer Animation and an editorial board   member of several publications including The Visual Computer and the   CADDM Journal of the China Engineering Society. He has organized  several  courses in SIGGRAPH and is cochair of the Eurographics  working group on  animation and simulation. His research interests are in  Virtual Humans, Computer Animation, Networked Virtual Environments,  and Artificial Life.

Both presenters are pioneers in the area of Virtual Humans and have given tutorials/courses at ACM SIGGRAPH, IEEE   VRAIS, ACM VRST, Eurographics, CGI. They have published more than 200 scientific papers and edited more than 25 books.