The Rocketbox Library and the Utility of Freely Available Rigged Avatars

Mar Gonzalez-Franco; Eyal Ofek; Ye Pan; Angus Antley; Anthony Steed; Bernhard Spanlang; Antonella Maselli; Domna Banakou; Nuria Pelechano; Sergio Orts-Escolano; Veronica Orvalho; Laura Trutoiu; Markus Wojcik; Maria V. Sanchez-Vives; Jeremy Bailenson; Mel Slater; Jaron Lanier

doi:10.3389/frvir.2020.561558

The Rocketbox Library and the Utility of Freely Available Rigged Avatars

Mar Gonzalez-Franco, Eyal Ofek, Ye Pan, Angus Antley, Anthony Steed, Bernhard Spanlang, Antonella Maselli, Domna Banakou, Nuria Pelechano, Sergio Orts-Escolano, Veronica Orvalho, Laura Trutoiu, Markus Wojcik, Maria V. Sanchez-Vives, Jeremy Bailenson, Mel Slater, Jaron Lanier

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Abstract

As part of the open sourcing of the Microsoft Rocketbox avatar library for research and academic purposes, here we discuss the importance of rigged avatars for the Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR, AR) research community. Avatars, virtual representations of humans, are widely used in VR applications. Furthermore many research areas ranging from crowd simulation to neuroscience, psychology, or sociology have used avatars to investigate new theories or to demonstrate how they influence human performance and interactions. We divide this paper in two main parts: the first one gives an overview of the different methods available to create and animate avatars. We cover the current main alternatives for face and body animation as well introduce upcoming capture methods. The second part presents the scientific evidence of the utility of using rigged avatars for embodiment but also for applications such as crowd simulation and entertainment. All in all this paper attempts to convey why rigged avatars will be key to the future of VR and its wide adoption.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	561558
Journal	Frontiers in Virtual Reality
Volume	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3389/frvir.2020.561558
State	Published - Nov 3 2020

Keywords

Microsoft Rocketbox
animation
augmented reality
avatars
blendshapes
motion capture
rigging
virtual reality

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Computer Graphics and Computer-Aided Design
Computer Science Applications
Human-Computer Interaction

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10.3389/frvir.2020.561558

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Gonzalez-Franco, M., Ofek, E., Pan, Y., Antley, A., Steed, A., Spanlang, B., Maselli, A., Banakou, D., Pelechano, N., Orts-Escolano, S., Orvalho, V., Trutoiu, L., Wojcik, M., Sanchez-Vives, M. V., Bailenson, J., Slater, M., & Lanier, J. (2020). The Rocketbox Library and the Utility of Freely Available Rigged Avatars. Frontiers in Virtual Reality, 1, Article 561558. https://doi.org/10.3389/frvir.2020.561558

Gonzalez-Franco, M, Ofek, E, Pan, Y, Antley, A, Steed, A, Spanlang, B, Maselli, A, Banakou, D, Pelechano, N, Orts-Escolano, S, Orvalho, V, Trutoiu, L, Wojcik, M, Sanchez-Vives, MV, Bailenson, J, Slater, M & Lanier, J 2020, 'The Rocketbox Library and the Utility of Freely Available Rigged Avatars', Frontiers in Virtual Reality, vol. 1, 561558. https://doi.org/10.3389/frvir.2020.561558

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abstract = "As part of the open sourcing of the Microsoft Rocketbox avatar library for research and academic purposes, here we discuss the importance of rigged avatars for the Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR, AR) research community. Avatars, virtual representations of humans, are widely used in VR applications. Furthermore many research areas ranging from crowd simulation to neuroscience, psychology, or sociology have used avatars to investigate new theories or to demonstrate how they influence human performance and interactions. We divide this paper in two main parts: the first one gives an overview of the different methods available to create and animate avatars. We cover the current main alternatives for face and body animation as well introduce upcoming capture methods. The second part presents the scientific evidence of the utility of using rigged avatars for embodiment but also for applications such as crowd simulation and entertainment. All in all this paper attempts to convey why rigged avatars will be key to the future of VR and its wide adoption.",

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note = "Funding Information: Funding. MS-V and MS are funded by NEUROVIRTUAL-AGAUR (2017 SGR 1296). MS-V and Virtual Bodyworks are also supported by the European Union's Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (2014-2020) under Grant Agreement: 881712 (VRperGenere). DB and MS are supported by the European Research Council Advanced Grant MoTIVE #742989. NP was partly funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness under Grant No. TIN2017-88515-C2-1-R. Publisher Copyright: Copyright {\textcopyright} 2020 Gonzalez-Franco, Ofek, Pan, Antley, Steed, Spanlang, Maselli, Banakou, Pelechano, Orts-Escolano, Orvalho, Trutoiu, Wojcik, Sanchez-Vives, Bailenson, Slater and Lanier.",

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AU - Spanlang, Bernhard

AU - Maselli, Antonella

AU - Banakou, Domna

AU - Pelechano, Nuria

AU - Orts-Escolano, Sergio

AU - Orvalho, Veronica

AU - Trutoiu, Laura

AU - Wojcik, Markus

AU - Sanchez-Vives, Maria V.

AU - Bailenson, Jeremy

AU - Slater, Mel

AU - Lanier, Jaron

N1 - Funding Information: Funding. MS-V and MS are funded by NEUROVIRTUAL-AGAUR (2017 SGR 1296). MS-V and Virtual Bodyworks are also supported by the European Union's Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (2014-2020) under Grant Agreement: 881712 (VRperGenere). DB and MS are supported by the European Research Council Advanced Grant MoTIVE #742989. NP was partly funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness under Grant No. TIN2017-88515-C2-1-R. Publisher Copyright: Copyright © 2020 Gonzalez-Franco, Ofek, Pan, Antley, Steed, Spanlang, Maselli, Banakou, Pelechano, Orts-Escolano, Orvalho, Trutoiu, Wojcik, Sanchez-Vives, Bailenson, Slater and Lanier.

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The Rocketbox Library and the Utility of Freely Available Rigged Avatars

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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