Life-like, Digital Head May be Your New Personal Assistant (Video)

Ever wondered what Siri would look like? Now she may have the possibility of receiving a face to go with her voice. New research conducted at Cambridge Research Lab and the University of Cambridge's Department of Engineering has resulted in Zoe: a digital, talking head that can express a range of human emotions on demand.

The virtual face can display emotions such as happiness, anger and fear, and can even suit its voice to any feeling that the user wants it to simulate. Creepily life-like, the face is based on actress Zoe Lister, best known for her role in the Channel 4 series, Hollyoaks.

In order to create the interface, the researchers spent several days recording Lister's speech and facial expressions. In all, they collected a dataset of thousands of sentences and tracked the actress's face with computer vision software while she was speaking. They then created six basic settings for the new technology: happy, sad, tender, angry, afraid and neutral. By adjusting the settings to different levels and altering the pitch, speed and depth of the voice, users can convey any emotion they desire. The system itself could be used in mobile technology--as a personal assistant in smartphones or to "face message" friends.

Don't want to have Zoe's face as your personal assistant? No problem. The framework behind Zoe is a template that could enable users to upload their own faces and voices in a matter of seconds rather than days. Eventually, people could send messages to their friends that are delivered via their disembodied head.

Researchers are optimistic about the applications. The system could be used in gaming, audio-visual books, as a means of delivering online lectures and in other interfaces.

"This technology could be the start of a whole new generation of interfaces which make interacting with a computer much more like talking to another human being," said Roberto Cipolla from the University of Cambridge in a press release.

It's not all fun and games, though. The team is also working with a school for autistic and deaf children. The technology could potentially be used to help the pupils to "read" emotions and lip-read.

Currently, the researchers are searching for further applications for their new creation and are creating a system that can be personalized by users.

Want to see Zoe in action? Check out the video below, courtesy of the University of Cambridge.