Cloning yourself in a virtual world

[Natalie Wood]

I am trying figure out which 3d immersive environment offers users the ability to create highly realistic avatars. More to the point I am looking for a virtual world that allows users to create a virtual clone of themselves for navigating the world (by uploading a photo of their face which it them digitizes and places on the avatar), rather than attempting to modify an existing avatar to look somewhat like you. Alternatively I am looking for an avatar creating software which will create a clone of you that you can use in popular worlds such as SecondLife, There, Gaia Online etc. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Cosmic Truth]

FYI:
Activeworlds.com
has CAV or Custom avatars you can build in world evan as a tourist, or citizens can have a PAV or personal avatars, which you can upload to the universe and have as a more perminent customized avatar. the objects used for activeworlds are RWX X and COB objects.

[Charles Gatlin]

Looks like a tall order but an excellent question.

Hmm a customized Avatar indeed. Who would want such a thing?. Perhaps an artist or a celebrity. I would imagine the mirror worlds may be working on something like that; not sure though. If It could be offered in the form you suggest I suppose you could comand a nice commission for it. What would happen if the person dies?

I would personally like to see more people brainstorm the possibilities.

There are two problems you present nether of which are insurmountable.

1 The more detailed the Avatar the more bandwidth required.
2 The visual fidelity of the avatar across multiple platforms

[Roger L. Singer]

Mr. Gatlin,
In response to your #1: What if the avatar went photoreal only upon close-up? I had come across an app on my iphone once where there was a guy who has come up with such a technique. It was most fascinating. I will try to remember his site. It had an image of two amish girls that went from digital to photo real as you got closer. (ah, my poor failing memory--- perhaps clones will help with better memory some year haha)
It is good to see your presence.

[Sophia Yates]

I do know of one person who has done some custom jobs for celebrities in Second Life and it is quit interesting to see the virtual resemblance. I remember Avatar Island that had a lab sort of like Frankenstiens laboratory where you they had a program where you sent them your photo and they created an avatar in your likeness. Close but then again creepy @ the time.

Ive looked around other worlds on-line that have absolutely beautiful avatars but do not have the interactive platform others have. Having all the bells and whistles of what a real life seminar offers as far as face to face interaction and the physical handshake nothing can compare but if you can't get there from where you are in the globe its second best to none to at least clone yourself the best you can and hope the power stays on.

The photo copy avatar wasn't really to believable but close enough @ the time. If you want a name of the person I know who does custom Avatars for celebrities let me know I will send you their name.

From reading the topics and volumes of inquisitive questions everyone is writing about here looks like artificial intel has definitely hit a right cord.

Sophia~

Sophia Yates~

[Sophia Yates]

I sent a note off to my friend about the realistic avatars. While waiting for an answer I roamed around to see what was new on that in SL. Well sorry to say same ole ugly faces lol. God I don't know how close you want to come but Ive seen some really great avatars and you can play with the light in Sl so they are not that disturbing.

The less immersive environments seem to really have the most blessed of all avatars. But even those are not true to life as we know it. Maybe we can reverse engineer. Avatar representation clone in real life? Now that's a scary thought. Sl so far does allow you to upload an image of yourself or you can also create it using some applications. I use AVPainter to fool around with textures for clothing and skins and you can apply a face if you like. A little distorted but interesting.

Avatar Island hasn't changed much and I wasn't able to stay online today long enough to visit enough locations to look into it more. Will head back later to see what my friend has to say who customs Avatars. i consider this person a perfectionist and expert on the subject from my perspective.

[Natalie Wood]

Hi.
Thanks for your feedback. I need this for a potential commercial venture/experiment in which "customers" will interact with each other in a virtual world. We need to have avatars that are as realistic as possible to the person's physical self. Given that there could be a large number of people participating with varying degress of skill I really need something that is quick and easy to use. E.g upload a photo and it automatically clones the person.

[Charles Gatlin]

Hi Natalie
I did a quick google search and landed on this site: http://www.evolver.com This seems close to what you're looking for. I sign up for an account myself just to check it out. I'm not sure how it works yet but seams simple to use.

Hope this helps

Charles

[Roger L. Singer]

nice work! That seems to be getting pretty darn close. Best I've seen so far.

[Natalie Wood]

Thanks Charles!

[Roger L. Singer]

wow, just starting out with this program and it rocks!

[Roger L. Singer]

however, it doesnt seem to deploy to Second Life.

[Charles Gatlin]

They are still in Beta right now as I understand it. It may be perfect time to ask their developers about their plans for SL.