14:05:02

Avatar pioneers lay down the challenge for total human computer interaction

Digital Animations Group, a pioneer in the development of virtual characters, is issuing a challenge to computer scientists at next week's British Computer Society Conference in Belfast, to create technologies for total human computer interaction.

The company, whose real-time animation engine provided the catalyst for genuinely interactive 3D characters, wants to see information and communications systems that are totally embedded in everyday life. To achieve this requires the coordination of a vast field of scientific study from computer technology, psychology, ergonomics and many other disciplines from industry and commerce, but the company believes that it is key to the continuing march of computer applications and usage.

Mike Antliff of Digital Animations Group, who makes the presentation to the BCS today, Tuesday 14th May, says:
"To my mind human computer interaction is one of the greatest challenges for the technology industry today. At its heart is the goal to create and implement communications systems that are not only embedded in the environment around us, but are also a natural extension of everything we do as living, breathing, individual, human beings.

"Human computer interaction embraces the logic of scientific research, pushing new developments in interactive digital technology into new territory; it has to respect the needs and aspirations of both a business and a consumer market and it needs a leap of imagination and a level of creativity that is a very special quality within the technology sector.

"HCI deals with how we react to a computer, how we use it, how we imbue it with characteristics to make it feel familiar and how we build computers to deliver what the user wants. It is fundamental.

"Our part in the process is to create avatars, which we believe are the face of the future connecting all people with the computers around them - be they technophobes, young, old, high-end users in the office or at home or simply a customer. To make them viable means the combination of a range of highly sophisticated sensory technologies including animation, speech, vision and artificial intelligence.

"We believe that we have made great strides in these areas and want to talk to anyone who feels they have what it takes to make a character interface totally natural."

Digital Animations Group's latest virtual character, Maddy, recently took questions from a live TV audience on BBC ONE's flagship science programme, Tomorrow's World. The experiment involved a range of integrated technologies including speech, animation, chat bot technologies and natural language parsing and was a tremendous success. The company is currently developing avatars as visitor management systems, Internet guides and personal assistants.

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