Virtual Immortality for Virtual
Eternity
By Patrick Tucker
Scientists endeavor to create more "lifelike"
digital people.
For centuries, humans have been trying to beat
mortality through technology, employing such fanciful (if chilling)
methods as cryonics, or the freezing of cadavers in the hope that
science might one day stumble upon a cure for all ills. Now, the
National Science Foundation has awarded a half-million-dollar grant to
the universities of Central Florida at Orlando and Illinois at Chicago
to explore how researchers might use artificial intelligence, archiving,
and computer imaging to create convincing, digital versions of real
people, a possible first step toward virtual immortality.
"The goal is to combine artificial intelligence
with the latest advanced graphics and video game-type technology to
enable us to create historical archives of people beyond what can be
achieved using traditional technologies such as text, audio, and video
footage," says Jason Leigh of the University of Chicago's Electronic
Visualization Laboratory.
Leigh's lab will attempt to store and then
digitize the appearance, mannerisms, voice, and (some of) the knowledge
of a senior program manager from the National Science Foundation who is
known for his institutional savvy. The researchers hope to then assemble
the data into a "virtual person" or avatar that will be able to respond
to questions and behave in a manner representative of the test subject.
"The technology we are developing isn't going to
magically map memories and personalities," says Leigh. "There is a lot
of work to be done. But one can envisiongiven
sufficient computing power and informationhat
one can produce highly realistic characters."
A simpler form of this technology already pervades
online environments like the popular game Second Life, says Leigh. One
potential use might be to enhance the experience of such games, enabling
players to archive their characters' experiences in the game
environment, and, of course, to populate virtual worlds with characters
who are more rich, interesting, and lifelike.
Stringing together the diverse technologies of
live computer animation with artificial intelligence, speech
recognition, speech synthesis, and facial expression recognition will be
the biggest challenge of the project. Leigh doubts that the team will be
able to create a totally credible and naturalistic avatar within the
project's three-year time frame, but he is optimistic that the work will
stimulate interest in the field.
The project seeks to not only further the research
of scientists tinkering in virtual worlds, but also be of use to a
public trying to make its way in a world increasingly dominated by
computers.
It goes beyond just creating technology for
archiving people," says Leigh. "It encourages people to think about
different ways in which they can communicate and interact with
computers. For example, right now many computers have built-in web-cams.
Most of them are turned off unless [they are being used] for
videoconferencing. But imagine if the camera were active all the time
and the computer was watching and listening to you as you work, just
like an assistant or a secretary. It could use that information to
provide you with assistance if it sees that you are frustrated.
Human-to-human communication has evolved and matured over several
millennia, but humans have really only learned to communicate with
computers [in] the last 50 years."
While the technologies, as well as the project
itself, are still in their infancy, Leigh is hopeful that the research
may one day lead to entirely new ways of thinking about memory, history,
and even immortality. "In our efforts to capture the past by digitizing
historical artifacts, using some of the most advanced imaging technology
available today, we've forgotten to turn that imaging technology
'inwards' and try and capture the original creators of those historical
artifacts," he says.
In the future, artificial intelligence, voice
synthesis, and computer graphics may allow us to preserve much more of
the departed than present technology allows and in so doing, infuse
history, and memory, with new life.
Source: University of Illinois
at Chicago, Office of Public Affairs, 601 South Morgan Street, Chicago,
Illinois 60607. Web site
www.news.uic.edu
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