Synthetic Characters

Description: Synthetic Characters projects try to understand how to build interactive characters that come alive in the eyes of the people who interact with them. Through this process we hope to tackle hard problems which have broad applicability to the design of intelligent systems and real-time character animation.

Several things must be done right in the design of interactive characters and immersive virtual environments in order to create a sense in the user's mind that the interactive characters with whom they are interacting are "sentient" beings.

Developed from a range of disciplines such as: animal behaviour, traditional character animation, artificial intelligence and robotics, and computer graphics and modelling. It is our belief that through the creative synthesis of ideas from these disciplines we can make significant progress toward our ultimate goal of building "insanely great" interactive characters.

Links:

Synthetic Characters Group - MIT Media Laboratory: http://characters.media.mit.edu/