Interacting with avatars is more social than typing at a keyboard. With avatars that incorporate speech recognition, you are talking instead of typing or using pointer devices. People are used to interacting with each other through speech.
Examples and Prototypes
Ananova (http://www.ananova.com/)
Virtual newsreader on the internet has been launched in London. Computer-generated Ananova is programmed to deliver news 24 hours a day.
Avatara (http://www.avatara.com/avatars/)
Avatara specializes in the creation of Virtual Worlds & Custom Avatars for use with these VRML based Multi-User Communication Clients.
The Persona Project at Microsoft Research (http://research.microsoft.com/research/pubs/view.aspx?pubid=439)
Exploring social user interfaces that employ an explicity anthropomorphic character to interact with the user in a natural spoken dialogue. The prototype system described here integrates spoken language input, a simple conversational dialogue manager, reactive 3D animation, speech output and sound effects to creat Peedy the Parrot, a conversational assistant who accepts user requests for audio CDs and then plays them.
For Games
Animating the mouth and facial expressions while game characters are speaking.
For Kiosks
Used for shoping mall information centers, drive thru customer interaction, automatic teller machines, sales machines, interactive instructions.
For Web Pages
Other Applications
For language training applications to demonstrate mouth shapes and movement when speaking.
Vendors
Sensory Inc (http://www.sensoryinc.com/html/products/technologies.html)
Sensory’s FluentSoft Animated Speech is designed to allow portable communication devices and PC’s to display animated characters that can accurately lip-synch. Text or voice messages can be played back with the avatar of your choice delivering the message or acting as your personal digital assistant. Ideal for use in smartphones, Animated Speech provides rendering, morphing, and lip synchronization for a more natural experience, and can also be used in conjunction with FluentSoft speaker independent recognition to create a fully bi-directional interface for text messaging.
Alchemists.com (http://www.alchemists.com/)
We offer production, design, and consulting services in multimedia and 3D for the web and custom displays