Virtual Humans
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Virtual Humans
Virtual humans (or digital humans) are simulations of human beings on computers. The research domain is concerned with their representation, movement and behavior. There is a wide range of applications: simulation, games, film and TV productions, human factors and ergonomic and usability studies in various industries (aerospace, automobile, machinery, furniture etc.), clothing industry, telecommunications (avatars), medicine, etc. These applications require different know-hows. A medical application might require an exact simulation of specific internal organs; film industry requires highest aesthetic standards, natural movements, and facial expressions; ergonomic studies require faithful body proportions for a particular population segment and realistic locomotion with constraints, etc. Research The Virtual Humans field is a vast research domain comprising numerous research topics: * ''Anatomy'' ''and geometry'', dealing with creation of human shape in 3D graphics using 3D sc ...
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Simulation
A simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time. Simulations require the use of Conceptual model, models; the model represents the key characteristics or behaviors of the selected system or process, whereas the simulation represents the evolution of the model over time. Often, computers are used to execute the computer simulation, simulation. Simulation is used in many contexts, such as simulation of technology for performance tuning or optimizing, safety engineering, testing, training, education, and video games. Simulation is also used with scientific modelling of natural systems or human systems to gain insight into their functioning, as in economics. Simulation can be used to show the eventual real effects of alternative conditions and courses of action. Simulation is also used when the real system cannot be engaged, because it may not be accessible, or it may be dangerous or unacceptable to engage, or it is being designed bu ...
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Computer Facial Animation
Computer facial animation is primarily an area of computer graphics that encapsulates methods and techniques for generating and animating images or models of a character face. The character can be a human, a humanoid, an animal, a legendary creature or character, etc. Due to its subject and output type, it is also related to many other scientific and artistic fields from psychology to traditional animation. The importance of face, human faces in communication, verbal and non-verbal communication and advances in Graphics processing unit, computer graphics hardware and software have caused considerable scientific, technological, and artistic interests in computer facial animation. Although development of computer graphics methods for facial animation started in the early-1970s, major achievements in this field are more recent and happened since the late 1980s. The body of work around computer facial animation can be divided into two main areas: techniques to generate animation data, ...
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William Fetter
William Fetter, also known as William Alan Fetter or Bill Fetter (March 14, 1928June 23, 2002), was an American graphic designer and pioneer in the field of computer graphics. He explored the perspective fundamentals of computer animation of a human figure from 1960 on and was the first to create a human figure as a 3D model. The ''First Man'' was a pilot in a short 1964 computer animation, also known as ''Boeing Man'' and now as ''Boeman'' by the Boeing company. Fetter preferred the term "Human Figure" for the pilot.William Fetter: ''Computer Graphics at Boeing.'' In: ''Print Magazine'', XX:VI, November/December 1966, S. 29. In 1960, working in a team supervised by Verne Hudson, he helped coin the term Computer graphics. He was art director at the Boeing Company in Wichita.Robin Oppenheimer''William Fetter, E.A.T., and 1960s Computer Graphics Collaborations in Seattle''from ''www.academia.edu''. Life Born in Independence, Missouri, Fetter attended school in Englewood and gradua ...
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Virtual Actor
A virtual human, virtual persona, or digital clone is the creation or re-creation of a human being in image and voice using computer-generated imagery and sound, that is often indistinguishable from the real actor. The idea of a virtual actor was first portrayed in the 1981 film ''Looker'', wherein models had their bodies scanned digitally to create 3D computer generated images of the models, and then animating said images for use in TV commercials. Two 1992 books used this concept: ''Fools'' by Pat Cadigan, and ''Et Tu, Babe'' by Mark Leyner. In general, virtual humans employed in movies are known as synthespians, virtual actors, vactors, cyberstars, or "silicentric" actors. There are several legal ramifications for the digital cloning of human actors, relating to copyright and personality rights. People who have already been digitally cloned as simulations include Bill Clinton, Marilyn Monroe, Fred Astaire, Ed Sullivan, Elvis Presley, Bruce Lee, Audrey Hepburn, Anna Marie Go ...
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Embodied Agent
In artificial intelligence, an embodied agent, also sometimes referred to as an interface agent, is an intelligent agent that interacts with the environment through a physical body within that environment. Agents that are represented graphically with a body, for example a human or a cartoon animal, are also called embodied agents, although they have only virtual, not physical, embodiment. A branch of artificial intelligence focuses on empowering such agents to interact autonomously with human beings and the environment. Mobile robots are one example of physically embodied agents; Ananova and Microsoft Agent are examples of graphically embodied agents. Embodied conversational agents are embodied agents (usually with a graphical front-end as opposed to a robotic body) that are capable of engaging in conversation with one another and with humans employing the same verbal and nonverbal means that humans do (such as gesture, facial expression, and so forth). Embodied conversational age ...
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Autonomous Agent
An autonomous agent is an intelligent agent operating on a user's behalf but without any interference of that user. An intelligent agent, however appears according to an IBM white paper as: Intelligent agents are software entities that carry out some set of operations on behalf of a user or another program with some degree of independence or autonomy, and in so doing, employ some knowledge or representation of the user's goals or desires. Such an agent is a system situated in, and part of, a technical or natural environment, which senses any or some status of that environment, and acts on it in pursuit of its own agenda. Such an agenda evolves from drives (or programmed goals). The agent acts to change part of the environment or of its status and influences what it sensed. Non-biological examples include intelligent agents, autonomous robots, and various software agents, including artificial life agents, and many computer viruses. Biological examples are not yet defined. Agen ...
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Second Life
''Second Life'' is an online multimedia platform that allows people to create an avatar for themselves and then interact with other users and user created content within a multi player online virtual world. Developed and owned by the San Francisco-based firm Linden Lab and launched on June 23, 2003, it saw rapid growth for some years and in 2013 it had approximately one million regular users. Growth eventually stabilized, and by the end of 2017 the active user count had declined to "between 800,000 and 900,000". In many ways, ''Second Life'' is similar to massively multiplayer online role-playing games; nevertheless, Linden Lab is emphatic that their creation is not a game: "There is no manufactured conflict, no set objective". The virtual world can be accessed freely via Linden Lab's own client software or via alternative third-party viewers. ''Second Life'' users, also called ' residents', create virtual representations of themselves, called ''avatars'', and are able to int ...
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The Palace (computer Program)
''The Palace'' is a British drama television series that aired on ITV in 2008. Produced by Company Pictures for the ITV network, it was created by Tom Grieves and follows a fictional British Royal Family in the aftermath of the death of King James III and the succession of his 24-year-old son, King Richard IV, played by Rupert Evans. It also stars Jane Asher and Zoe Telford. The series was filmed on location in Lithuania in 2007 and broadcast from 14 January to 3 March 2008. Low viewing figures cancelled it after one series. Plot On the sudden death of King James III, his 24-year-old elder son inherits the throne and becomes Richard IV. Princess Eleanor (Sophie Winkleman), his older sister, wants the throne for herself and resents that it goes to Richard. Her Private Secretary, Major Simon Brooks (David Harewood), helps her try to discredit the new king. Richard's younger brother, Prince George (Sebastian Armesto), is a party-animal, and the youngest sister, Princess Isabelle ...
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User (computing)
A user is a person who utilizes a computer or network service. A user often has a user account and is identified to the system by a username (or user name). Other terms for username include login name, screenname (or screen name), account name, nickname (or nick) and handle, which is derived from the identical citizens band radio term. Some software products provide services to other systems and have no direct end users. End user End users are the ultimate human users (also referred to as operators) of a software product. The end user stands in contrast to users who support or maintain the product such as sysops, database administrators and computer technicians. The term is used to abstract and distinguish those who only use the software from the developers of the system, who enhance the software for end users. In user-centered design, it also distinguishes the software operator from the client who pays for its development and other stakeholders who may not directly ...
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Graphical Representation
Graphic communication as the name suggests is communication using graphic elements. These elements include symbols such as glyphs and icons, images such as drawings and photographs, and can include the passive contributions of substrate, colour and surroundings. It is the process of creating, producing, and distributing material incorporating words and images to convey data, concepts, and emotions.Definition of Graphic Communications
GRAPHIC COMM CENTRAL, 2008. Accessed 25 Feb 2009.
The field of graphics communications encompasses all phases of the graphic communications processes from origination of the idea (design, layout, and typography) through reproduction, finishing and distribution of two- or three-dimensional products or electronic transmission.
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Avatar (computing)
In computing, an avatar is a graphical representation of a user or the user's character or persona. Avatars can be two-dimensional icons in Internet forums and other online communities, where they are also known as profile pictures, userpics, or formerly picons (personal icons). Alternatively, an avatar can take the form of a three-dimensional model, as used in online worlds and video games. The term ' () originates from Sanskrit, and was adopted by early computer games and science fiction novelists. Richard Garriott extended the term to an on-screen user representation in 1985, and the term gained wider adoption in Internet forums and MUDs. Nowadays, avatars are used in a variety of online settings including social media, virtual assistants, instant messaging platforms, and digital worlds such as ''World of Warcraft'' and ''Second Life''. They can take the form of an image of one's real-life self, as often seen on platforms like Facebook, or a virtual character that diverge ...
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Grasp
A grasp is an act of taking, holding or seizing firmly with (or as if with) the hand. An example of a grasp is the handshake, wherein two people grasp one of each other's like hands. In zoology particularly, prehensility is the quality of an appendage or organ that has adapted for grasping or holding. Grasping is often preceded by reaching, which is highly dependent on head and trunk control, as well as eye control and gaze. Development The development of grasping is an important component of child development stages, wherein the main types of grasps are: * ''Raking grasp'', wherein the fingers, but not including the thumb, do all the holding.Page 176, section "Grasp"
in:
* ''Palmar grasp'', wherein the fingers squeeze against the palm, instead of against themselves as in the ''raking grasp''.
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