Avatar Experts Pursued in NSF Research Effort

Created on March 14, 2007

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R. Colin Johnson, EE Times, PORTLAND, Ore. - The National Science Foundation (NSF) is funding development of electronic visualization technology, providing $500,000 in seed money to the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and the University of Central Florida in Orlando.

“Our budget is about one-fiftieth of a typical video game developer’s,” said researcher Jason Leigh, a UIC professor and director of its Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL). Still, “we think we can put together a working prototype by 2009.”

The three-year effort will begin with graduate students spending several months shadowing an undisclosed NSF official to record his mannerisms, gait and lifestyle in a series of video and audio recordings. Back at the lab in Chicago, students will craft avatars that digitize all the visual aspects of the mystery NSF director. Use Interacting with Virtual Alex

image Credit: S. Lee, EVL