27th
Intel & Facial Expression
An interesting post from an Intel insider (here: http://blogs.intel.com/research/2009/02/finding_the_productivity_in_vi.php) made me ponder about a couple of questions:
a) How many people (geeks included) don’t know yet what a virtual world is?
The author declares: “Although I’m involved in evangelizing this research area, I have my own skepticisms about the what can be done using present technology. […] it seems like these things could still be done better with a combination of a teleconference or video conference plus a chat window.”
Then he ‘finds out’ the avatar makes the difference and gives “a sense of physical presence” to the chat.
b) Is facial expression the horizon?
Back in 1992 webcams tracking facial expressions were a matter of science fiction novels. Neil Stephenson’s Snowcrash heroine Juanita “figured out a way to make avatars show something close to real emotion” and got rich in the process.
But, as Intel’s Sean Koehl pointed out, avatars are expressive anyway. Why?
Because, we humans are a social race and use any kind of expressions, verbal and non-verbal, to capture the moods of people surrounding us, from whom we depend for survival.
Moreover, in the words of Scott McCloud (Understanding Comics, 1993) we are an egotic race. We project ourselves everywhere, see emotions where there’s none and recreate the world in our likeness.
Maybe facial expression is not the next horizon, after all.
