Roblox is launching avatar-based voice calls with facial motion tracking | TechCrunch
techcrunch.com
Roblox Connect weaves Roblox's existing avatars, voice chat and camera-based facial animations together into a new product.
  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    The voice-based calls bring two avatars together in a virtual space (a dock and a campsite were examples), leveraging Roblox’s existing investments in facial motion tracking for a more present, immersive experience.

    “In the near future, a person’s avatar will mirror their exact facial expressions, right down to the same blink rate,” Roblox’s CTO and CPO wrote in the announcement.

    The product weaves Roblox’s existing avatars, voice chat and camera-based facial animations together into something that could stand apart from the platform’s traditional game-like worlds.

    “Behind the scenes, we’re essentially packaging a Hollywood-style motion capture studio into something that runs on a mobile phone or laptop—without the need for equipment or motion-tracking dots,” the announcement reads.

    The company is betting that more people will want virtual avatars to express their emotions down the line, but for now that technology is usually awkward or unsettling enough that it’s more of a tech party trick than a go-to medium for prolonged voice chat (see also: Apple’s Memoji).

    Like competitor Epic, maker of Fortnite, Roblox takes an aggressively cross-platform approach to making its app available and easy to use and Sony’s gaming console has been that strategy’s obvious missing piece for a while now.

    The original article contains 440 words, the summary contains 201 words. Saved 54%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!