And just what are digital humans you ask? According to Pulse Evolution (Port St. Lucie, FL and San Rafael, CA), they are computer-generated animations that have such high fidelity, they look almost real. And the world is about to be overrun by them, so watch out!
Pulse has pioneered the technology with “live” performances by deceased artists. At the 2014 Billboard Music Awards, they staged a new song by Michael Jackson to coincide with the release of his album posthumously. By all accounts, it was an impressive display. You can see a video of the performance at https://youtu.be/BwS-FfdPRz0.
To be clear – this is not a holographic display but an update on the Pepper’s Ghost illusion. As shown in the graphic below, the CG Jackson images is projected from above onto a 45º mylar screen. There are six projectors to allow Jackson to appear to move left/right and front/back on the stage. It is a 2D projection but the illusion of depth is created by having live dancers in front of and behind him.
The care taken in the development of the CG animation is the real key to the illusion. Pulse spent 8 months developing a model of Jackson with very fine detail and then animating it to perform the moves as they thought he might perform the song. In order to do this, Pulse licensed the digital image of Michael Jackson from his estate. The company has done similar deals with the estates of Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley, so don’t be surprised to see new performances from them in the future.
Recently, Pulse also entered into a new joint development agreement with a new head-mounted display company called VTEC Laboratories. VTEC is located in Japan and is a spin off from Sony. Apparently, the idea is to create these digital human performances in a virtual environment that can be viewed with a VR headset.
Applications will include live events, such as virtual music concerts, multi-player games and other events set in rich VR environments that can be populated by hyper-realistic digital humans from Pulse Evolution.
Hiroyasu Furuse, COO and CTO of VTEC, is the former Senior Manager of Sony Corporation 4K Display and 4K Digital Cinema business. “While there are device alternatives and multiple choices of HMD goggle systems, there are very few end-to-end solutions for enterprise customers and for end-consumers. There are even fewer companies like Pulse Evolution, which can deliver the content and experiences that will make virtual reality a fascinating reality.”
John Textor, Chairman of Pulse Evolution Corporation, stated that, “Digital humans will be everywhere in this world. They will at times represent us, but they will also provide a relatable interface for artificially intelligent machine thinkers that will interact with us in this brave new world.”
Analyst Comment
It is clear that the very best animations can start to look very lifelike on a display surface – and that over time the cost and to do this level of fidelity will come down considerably. So Textor is probably right – we will interact with digital humans on a much greater scale in the not so distant future. But this also raises all sorts of concerns as well. What will happen when bad guys develop digital human scams to fleece the unsuspecting? Chris Chinnock.
