Date: Wed, 17 Apr 1996 12:58:19 +0000 Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds From: Mike Bevan Subject: CONF: Virtual Humans Conference Message-ID: <829742295.16863.0@vrnews.demon.co.uk> The official press release, conference brochure blurb and program details are appended. Sorry it's a bit long - it's going to be quite a big event. Mike Bevan Editor - VR NEWS `VIRTUAL HUMANS '96' FIRST-EVER CONFERENCE TO FEATURE STATE-OF-THE-ART HUMANOID TECHNOLOGIES AND APPLICATIONS EDS and VR NEWS are Conference Organizers; Virtual Humans is scheduled for June 1996 in Anaheim, California LOS ANGELES, April 11 /PRNewswire/ -- "Virtual Humans '96," the world's first conference focusing exclusively on business uses of virtual humans "living" in virtual reality worlds, takes place June 19-20 at the Hyatt Regency Alicante in Anaheim, California. Organized by VR NEWS, the virtual reality industry's journal of record, and global information services leader EDS, Virtual Humans '96 is supported by Silicon Graphics, Inc., maker of high performance graphics systems, the VR industry standard. Virtual Humans '96 joins leading researchers and practitioners from a wide range of disciplines -- from light-hearted entertainment to dead-serious military applications -- all with a common interest in the development of humanoid technologies. For the first time, experts in the fields of computer animation, real-time simulation, artificial life, and intelligent synthesis of dialog will meet to demonstrate and compare their current work to a growing audience of buyers. The best in the world will be there. "Humanoid technologies," or "virtual humans" (VH), are computer-generated people that live, work, and play in virtual worlds, standing in for real individuals or carrying out jobs that real people cannot do. For example, in the global online virtual environment created by Steven Spielberg's Starbright Foundation, hospital-bound children occupy fantasy "avatars" and can meet and play in fairytale settings with children around the world. A more typical application of VH is as attendees at public events, for example to investigate crowd movements at the new French National Stadium. And of course, VH are increasingly used in motion pictures as both "stars" and "extras" -- in the most literal sense of the term! Many different types of humanoids -- both autonomous and human-controlled -- will be demonstrated at Virtual Humans '96. Notes Sandra Kay Helsel, U.S. editor of VR NEWS, "Two powerful forces are converging to create and wildly expand the Virtual Humans marketplace: high-quality, affordable virtual reality technology, which is finally commercially available; and the Internet, which ties developers and projects together internationally. We're experiencing an explosion of interest. Leading software companies are building and licensing human-modeling applications; performance animation is commonplace in the TV and motion picture industries; and VH standards -- for example, for ergonomic testing -- are being set by mass-market producers in such industries as automotive and aerospace. Virtual Humans will be the growth industry for the 1990s!" Opening day one at Virtual Humans '96 will be co-moderator Professor Nadia Magnenat Thalmann from the University of Geneva, a European VH pioneer for over 15 years. She is best known for "Marilyn," a celebrated lifelike 3D computer model of Marilyn Monroe, complete with wind-blown wardrobe. On day two, co-moderator Professor Norm Badler of the University of Pennsylvania will present his ground breaking work on human body modeling and simulation, most notably "Jack," the world's most advanced and versatile commercially available human-modeling system. Other world-class speakers will include David Morin, special projects director at SOFTIMAGE, now a unit of Microsoft; Linda Jacobson, VR evangelist for Silicon Graphics, Inc.; Chris Landreth, a leading force at Alias/Wavefront Inc., now a unit of Silicon Graphics, Inc.; and Marc Ralbert of Boston Dynamics. Registration The early registration fee of $800 for the full conference and $450 to attend one day will be available until Friday, May 24. Standard registration rates of $900 for the full conference and $500 to attend one day will be available after May 24 and up to the day of the conference. Special rates of $750 for the full conference and $400 to attend one day will be offered to academics. For additional information on how to register, please contact EDS Detroit Virtual Reality Center, attn: Conferences, 7430 Second Avenue, Suite 150, Detroit, Ml 48202. Telephone: +1-313-974-5686. Fax: +1-313-974-0724. Email: human@dvrc.eds.com. About VR NEWS VR NEWS is the world's largest and most highly respected virtual reality industry magazine. Its U.S. editor, Dr. Sandra Kay Helsel, is a leading authority on virtual worlds, having founded the industry's first major publication and organized the international VR conferences that set the industry in motion. For VR NEWS, she is eyes and ears on the burgeoning North American market for VR technology, including Virtual Humans. Phone number for VRNEWS in the U.S. is +1-520-887-4485, fax +1- 520-887-3267. Email for Dr. Helsel is san@well.com. The Virtual Humans Conference is the second in a series of state-of-the-art international conferences organized by VR NEWS in partnership with EDS. It follows the widely-acclaimed "Virtual Heritage" event held in the UK in November 1995, a celebration of historic human constructions recreated and experienced in virtual reality. About EDS EDS has identified that business performance can be improved with the use of virtual human technology. Industries such as manufacturing, engineering, education and training, medicine and entertainment can benefit from the use of this technology. EDS is a leader in the global information services industry. The company's more than 95,000 employees specialize in applying a range of ideas and technologies to help business and government customers improve their economics, products, services and customer relationships. EDS, which serves customers in 41 countries, reported revenues of $12.4 billion in 1995. -0- 4/11/96 /CONTACT: Shari Riley of KillerApp Communications, 213-938-7600, sharir@kappcomm.com/ Virtual Humans Conference 19/20 June, Hyatt Regency Alicante, Anaheim Introduction Two powerful forces are combining to open up the Virtual Humans marketplace. The first is the accelerating and tangible market interest now evident in all forms of Virtual Reality. The hype and the hope are at last giving way to solid commercial activity. Right across the board, from commercial training to entertainment systems, and from virtual engineering to heritage reconstructions, the market is maturing and growing, and multi-million dollar contract awards are no longer a rarity. The second, inevitably, is the Internet. Around a half-dozen on-line 3D communities are up and running, complete with their first-generation avatars. In a few years time there will be hundreds, and then thousands - social, cultural, commercial meeting places, visited daily by millions of people. What is crystal clear is that these virtual environments need to have virtual people in them. On-line social and games communities are designed specifically for that purpose. Virtual cars, aircraft, houses, retail stores and factories are not just for looking at - they will be used by real people when they are built, and they too need virtual humans, to check out their accessibility and convenience, maintainability and safety. Virtual shopping malls will have sales 'bots; historical reconstructions will have guides, sometimes taking the form of contemporary inhabitants; virtual fashion shows will have mannequins; virtual learning environments will have virtual teachers, demonstrators, and difficult customers. Until recently, there was no virtual humans marketplace to speak of: just a few pioneering research groups - notably Prof. Badler's team at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Thalmanns in Switzerland - a handful of products, and a few significant projects each year. There is now an unmistakeable undercurrent of change, and of new interest. The leading VR software companies are building or licensing human modeling extensions; performance animation is becoming commonplace at marketing events, and is moving strongly into the TV and virtual studio field; standards discussions are under way in relation to humanoids for ergonomic testing. More important still is that the graphics and computational power necessary to support real-time virtual humans is starting to become affordably available. Silicon Graphics's InfiniteReality raised the performance threshold dramatically earlier this year, and all the trends suggest that comparable power will be on the desktop within two to three years. Virtual Humans '96 is the first event of its kind. It brings together leading researchers and practitioners from a wide range of disciplines, all with a common interest in the development of humanoid technologies of one kind or another. The audience for the conference will similarly comprise people with widely differing backgrounds - creative arts professionals, industrial designers, ergonomics and human factors specialists, academic researchers, anthropologists and sociologists, aerospace and military simulation experts, entertainment industry representatives. At the conference they will encounter many different types of humanoid - both autonomous and human-controlled - with differing levels of capability. In terms of appearance, motion, behavior, intelligence, communication and control, they will see just about the best there is, anywhere in the world. Importantly, delegates and speakers will also meet each other: contacts and cross-fertilization are crucial by-products of events such as this. And they will be present at the public launch of what will surely become a huge new global industry and marketplace, and one which may eventually have implications for real humans which we cannot yet guess. DAY 1 - SESSION 1 'COMPOSITE VIRTUAL HUMANS' Moderator - Prof. Nadia Thalmann 8.00 am - 9.10 am: Registration 9.10 am - 9.15 am Welcome and Opening Remarks Dr Sandra K. Helsel, VR NEWS 9.15 am - 9.45 am Keynote Address 9.45 am - 10.45 am In Pursuit of Realism Prof. Nadia Magnenat Thalmann MIRALAB-CUI, University of Geneva Prof. Nadia Thalmann has pioneered European research into Virtual Humans for over 15 years, and enjoys an outstanding international reputation both for her spectacular state-of-the-art demonstrations, and for the rigorous and intensive academic research programs which make them possible. One of her most celebrated projects was the creation of a lifelike real-time 3D computer graphics articulated model of Marilyn Monroe. The current focus of her work is the development of realistic virtual humans with characteristics such as emotions, clothes and hair. Prof. Thalmann will demonstrate examples of her latest work, created using the newly-released MARILYN software, provide some insights into how she sees the applications and capabilities of Virtual Humans developing in the near term, and discuss the principal technical barriers which future research programs must address. 10.45 am - 11.15 am: Refreshment Break 11.15 am - 12.15 pm The State of the Art Prof. Norman Badler Center for Human Modeling and Simulation, University of Pennsylvania Prof. Badler has been engaged for something over 20 years in human body modeling and simulation. Much of his work at the University of Pennsylvania has centered on the Jack software, widely regarded as the world's most advanced and versatile commercially-available human modeling system. Jack's capabilities include complex articulated motion, with balance-aware motion modification; collision avoidance; gesture and facial expressions; goal-based tasking; natural language processing, and many other features. It is used for a wide range of applications, including industrial ergonomic testing, military simulation and training, and human factors research. In his presentation, Prof Badler will demonstrate an advanced version of Jack, discuss some of its most effective applications, and look ahead to what further developments and applications are likely over the nextcouple of years. 12.15 pm - 1.45 pm: Lunch Break SESSION 2 - 'APPEARANCE & ANIMATION' 1.45 pm - 2.30 pm Human Modeling for Animation Chris Landreth Alias/Wavefront Inc. Chris Landreth is one of the world's leading animation professionals. He specializes in detailed and accurate human modeling, and was recently nominated for an academy award for his work on 'the end', a short animation film produced by Alias/Wavefront The animation software industry has already solved many of the graphical presentation problems which real-time modelers will need to address, in areas such as face, hair and clothes simulation. Chris will demonstrate some of his work in this field, focussing on the advanced facial and body animation work which made 'the end' possible. 2.30 pm - 3.15pm Real-Time Human Animation Marc Raibert Boston Dynamics Inc. Marc Raibert, founder of Boston Dynamics, was formerly Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT. In previous work, he developed laboratory robots that used control systems for balance and to coordinate their motions. These robots had legs on which they ran, jumped, traveled on simple paths, ran fast (13 mph), climbed a simple stairway, and did simple gymnastic maneuvers. Raibert's approach to automated computer characters is to adapt control systems from robotics, and to combine them with physics-based simulation, to allow the creatures to move with physical realism, without an animator specifying all the details. Boston Dynamics creates automated computer characters and engineering simulations for things that move. Marc Raibert will explain his company's approach to the simulation of realistic human motion, and demonstrate some of their latest work. 3.15pm - 3.45 pm: Refreshment Break 3.45 pm - 4.30 pm Virtual Theater David Morin SOFTIMAGE Microsoft By synchronizing a real-time 3D computer environment to a real world camera you can create a Virtual Theater, whose sets can be populated with a mixture of real people and virtual characters. Live actors can be positioned between layers of computer-generated 3D background, where they can interact with virtual actors. David Morin, Special Projects Director, will demonstrate the capabilities of the SOFTIMAGE Microsoft Virtual Theater software technology, and discuss some of its applications, which include virtual studios, 3-D game simulations, virtual reality for location-based entertainment, fast previews for post-production special effects, and previsualization and walk-throughs for engineering and architects 4.30 pm - 5.15pm High-Level Control of Human Motion Prof. Jessica Hodgins Georgia Institute of Technology Computer animations and virtual environments both require a source of motion for their characters. Prof. Hodgins's group is exploring one possible solution to this problem: applying high-level control algorithms to physically realistic models of the systems to be animated. The goal is to allow the animator to control the system at a high level and without an understanding of the underlying forces and torques or the motion of the individual joints. Her current research focuses on the control of dynamic physical systems, both natural and human-made, and explores techniques that may someday allow robots and animated creatures to plan and control their actions in complex and unpredictable environments. She will explain the basis of control systems that allow rigid body models of humans to run or bicycle at a variety of speeds, bounce on a trampoline, and perform handspring vaults and platform dives. 5.15pm - 6.00 pm Synthespians Jeff Kleiser Kleiser/Walczak Construction Co. Jeff Kleiser's and Diana Walczak's background and credits in the computer animation and special effects fields range from 'Tron' and 'Flight of the Navigator', via 'Stargate', to 'Clear and Present Danger' and 'Honey I Shrunk the Theater'. Their ground-breaking human animation work on 'Judge Dredd' , based around a 3D full body scan of Sylvester Stallone, received international acclaim, and is an example of the 'synthespian' concept, created (and trademarked) by Kleiser/Walczak in the late 1980's. The company recently opened Synthespian Studios, a production facility designed specifically to create computer-generated characters. Jeff Kleiser lectures widely on the subject of computer animation, to both academic and commercial audiences. In his presentation, he will show examples of some recent work, and discuss the implications of introducing synthespians into real-time virtual environments. DAY 2 - SESSION 3 'INTELLIGENCE AND COMMUNICATION' Moderator: Prof. Norman Badler 9.00 am - 9.45 am Julia, the Chatterbot Michael Mauldin Carnegie Mellon University Julia operates in a text-only virtual world called a MUD (Multi-User Domain). She is a robot user, with the ability to conduct apparently intelligent conversations with human users, many of whom are unaware that she is not human. Developed over a period of five years by Michael Mauldin, who will demonstrate her capabilities, she is currently the most advanced example of what were originally called Maas-Neotek robots, from William Gibson's book 'Neuromancer'. Julia analyses the structure and meaning and context of what is said to her, distinguishes between comments, questions, etc., accesses an encyclopedic database of response components, and assembles plausible conversational English responses, employing humor, sarcasm, politeness, impatience, and diplomacy, as appropriate. 9.45 am - 10.30 am Multimodal Interaction with Humanoid Characters Kristinn Thorisson MIT Media Lab When people talk to each other they generally use a wealth of gesture, speech, gaze and facial expressions to communicate the intended content. Complex information is combined in a concise manner and representational styles are chosen in real-time as the conversation unfolds. Kris Thorisson has been a researcher at the MIT Media Lab since 1990. His recent work centers on humanoid interface agents, and in particular on capturing elements that are critical to multimodal dialogue between a real and a virtual human. Techniques such as eye tracking, speech recognition, etc. are used to generate responses, including speech and gesture, from the virtual human in real-time. His system is called 'Ymir', and he will demonstrate its capabilities using a virtual human called 'Gandalf'. 10.30 am -11.00 am: Refreshment Break 11.00 am - 11.45 am Modeling Perceptive Virtual Humans with MARILYN Prof Daniel Thalmann Swiss Federal Institute of Technology MARILYN is a powerful and versatile virtual human simulation system. It was developed during a five-year project funded by the European Union, and has now been released commercially. It includes facial animation, body animation with deformations, grasping and walking, and hair and clothes simulation. It also supports autonomy and perception, and can be used to create simulations in which virtual humans move around in complex environments they may know and recognize, and in which they can for example play ball games based on their visual and tactile perception, and react to other virtual humans, and to real humans. Prof. Thalmann will speak on the subject of autonomous and perceptive virtual humans, and will demonstrate some of the work which has been carried out using the MARILYN software. 11.45 am - 12.30 pm Synthetic Digital Societies Prof. Paul Rosenbloom University of Southern California Prof. Rosenbloom's AI research activities include responsibility for the Soar Project at USC. Soar has been under development since 1983, and is a multi-disciplinary, multi-site attempt to build a general cognitive architecture. A current application is Soar IFOR (Intelligent Forces), the ultimate intent of which is to develop automated pilots whose behavior in simulated battlefields is nearly indistinguishable from that of human pilots. A prototype was deployed with some success in the STOW-E exercise in 1994, probably the first occasion on which an AI system was a direct participant in an operational military exercise. Prof. Rosenbloom will demonstrate teams of Soar-based automated pilots, and discuss some of the wide-ranging potential applications - and implications - of autonomous groups of computer-generated humanoids, capable of pursuing individual and collective goals, and of learning while they do so. 12.30 pm - 2.00 pm: Lunch Break SESSION 4 - 'AVATARS' 2.00 pm - 2.45 pm Speaking as a Virtual Human . . . Linda Jacobson Silicon Graphics Inc. Linda Jacobson, Silicon Graphics's 'Virtual Reality Evangelist', has for some years also been a leading figure in the field of performance animation. This typically involves a human performer, equipped with anything from a face tracker to a full body motion capture system, controlling in real-time the movement, gestures and speech of a computer-generated graphical creature. Performance animation has been widely used at marketing events, entertainment venues, and in TV shows. With the advent of avatar worlds on the Internet, a wide range of performance animation skills is likely to be required, by professional hosts and performers, and both active and passive visitors and participants. Ms Jacobson has gained extensive understanding of the physical, intellectual and creative demands placed on the human performer, and will offer some insights into her experiences, and guidance for future designers and users of these systems. 2.45 pm - 3.30 pm Avatars on the 'Net Mitra Paragraph International Avatars for on-line Internet communities have to be designed to operate within very tight processing and network bandwidth constraints. The widespread adoption of VRML and Java will further define the boundaries of achievable avatar appearance, motion and behavior. At the same time however, avatars on the net are expected to constitute the vast majority of the world's virtual humans, and considerable ingenuity will be applied to maximising performance within these constraints. Mitra was the principal architect of the avatar worlds developed by Worlds Inc. and of VRML+, Worlds Inc's VRML superset. He was a respected and leading contributor to the VRML 2.0 standardisation process, in the course of which his former company WorldMaker Inc., jointly with Silicon Graphics and Sony, formulated the Moving Worlds specification. He will discuss and demonstrate examples of the latest generation of Internet avatars. 3.30 pm - 4.00 pm: Refreshment Break 4.00 pm - 4.45 pm Avatar Control in Immersive Virtual Reality Dr Jonathan Waldern Virtuality Group plc The Virtuality Group has been the market leader in the field of Virtual Reality entertainment systems throughout the 1990s. In recent years their games and experiences have incorporated increasingly versatile autonomous creatures and avatars. The company's range of activities and developments has now broadened to include consumer products, including an Internet-compatible immersive VR system currently under development. Dr Waldern, co-founder of Virtuality, will preview this system, which incorporates innovative hardware and software technology for avatar control. 4.45 pm - 5.30 pm Panel Discussion and Closing Remarks