For whatever reason, people love interacting with themselves in the video game world. This concept has its roots deep in gaming history and was vetted on the Wii with the interactive Mii avatars. Similar features were added to Xbox Live in a recent refresh and now Microsoft is looking to take those user likenesses and bring them to a new level of realism.
Though the technology may be further off then they’d like to admit, the new Kinect peripheral could potential allow the Xbox to track the body and facial movements of a user. The thought is that the idiosyncrasies of an individual’s movements could then be converted to an avatar that would move similarly and would have the same features as the user.
According to ComputerandVideoGames.com, “USA Today is carrying an exclusive video showing off the tech, which Microsoft chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie said can be used to ‘create an avatar whose facial animation is very, very realistic, and the quality is almost like a photograph of a person.’”
Tech similar to this was demonstrated when the Kinect was first unveiled, but the device has yet to be used to produce photo-realistic avatars.
There are plenty of games currently in development that are designed to utilize the avatar in them. If the tech being showed off on USA Today can be perfected it could make for an even more engaging player experience.
Chris DiMarco is a Web Editor for TechZone360. He holds a master's degree in journalism from Quinnipiac University. Prior to joining TMC Chris worked with e-commerce provider Suresource as a contact center representative and development analyst. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by
Chris DiMarco
