IMPACT COMMUNICATION
AND INNOVATION
AND INNOVATION
This means that a new generation of smartphones will be able to create avatars easily, offering users the ability to scan their faces and insert them into digital simulations, possibly even in virtual reality. This is the premise of Virtually Dating, a project that brings strangers together on a blind date after having their bodies scanned to set up a 3D avatar to be used in immersive digital environments.
In 2016, Mark Zuckerberg showed similar interest when he demonstrated the new possibilities of the Oculus headsetfor virtual and augmented reality video conferencing, this time using digital avatars. Although the characters were created in the users' image, they still have a cartoonish look rather than a realistic one, which might lead us to a connection with the plot of the film The Congress (2013), starring Robin Wright.
This also shows that there is a segment of the population that is not necessarily interested in hyper-realistic, photo-quality avatars, but rather in animated or even abstract figures, without necessarily having a human body or anything close to it. With this in mind, Microsoft launched a new series of avatars for Xbox that, in addition to having an improved design, also feature new customization options such as wheelchairs and prosthetic limbs, for example, so that players can feel better represented.
This connection to self-representation in the form of animated characters is especially close to fans of Japanese pop culture, for example. Beyond holographic concerts, with audiences in the thousands, animated characters are considered part of the daily lives of fans of Japanese animation and comics.
Taking advantage of Seizing this market gap and riding the growing wave of digital assistants and chatbots, the startup Viclu Inc has released a conceptual video of the Gatebox, a box that includes a holographic digital assistant with a design similar to Vocaloid characters. The product is expected to be available by the end of this year, with pre-orders already open to customers in the US and Japan.
Unlike the abstract visual representation Apple created for Siri, Microsoft ended up establishing a connection between its own digital assistant, Cortana, and the character from the video game series Halo,developed by the studio 343 Industries, a Microsoft subsidiary. This is because, even though the assistant doesn't offer a face to users in its interface, those familiar with Halo will inevitably make an association with the character that served as the inspiration. In other words, the fact that Bill Gates' company gave an imagetic body—even if indirectly—to its digital assistant proves that this bridge is not only built in Asia, but also finds traction in the West.
On the other hand, also last week, the collective PretaLab, one of the initiatives of Olabi Makerspace, announced its newest project: Beta, a chatbot based on Facebook Messenger with the mission of spreading feminism. The idea is to keep people informed about what is being debated on social media and in the streets regarding the feminist struggle in Brazil, as well as to provide alerts and notifications when a topic gains more prominence or when it is necessary to organize a mobilization. With this, the Beta chatbot comes with the mission of helping men and women actively participate in the fight for women's rights in Brazil, thereby also preventing setbacks.
Although there are few images that give Beta a face, it is the portrait of a Black woman that graces the project's social media and official website. For now, Beta is interactive text in a Messenger conversation, but what if, one day, she could be an animated avatar moving through simulated environments in virtual reality?
When this new layer of the internet for immersive meetings and conferences becomes present and accessible, it will be natural to encounter avatars controlled not by another person behind the headset, but by robots—artificial intelligences that will gain autonomy and that, with any luck, will not be corrupted like Microsoft's experiment with its Twitter bot. With any luck, we will have Betas populating new immersive chat rooms alongside Hatsune Mikus and other synthetic beings we have yet to meet.
