Real-time voice driven facial animation system

Recently computers have enabled users to walk through cyberspace using interactive virtual reality techniques. An avatar in cyberspace can allow a virtual face-to-face communication environment. The article realizes an avatar which has a real face in cyberspace to construct a multi-user communication system by voice transmission through a network. A voice from a microphone is transmitted and analyzed, then mouth shape and facial expression of the avatar are synchronously estimated and synthesized in real time. The author also introduces an entertainment application of a real time voice driven synthetic face. This project is named "Fifteen Seconds of Fame" which is an example of an interactive movie.