Toppan and Digital Domain team up to produce virtual humans to work

If you think robots and AI will replace humans, then how about virtual humans?

Hong Kong-based Digital Domain and Japanese company Toppan are joining up to work together in the field of virtual humans, utilizing high-resolution data gathered from biometric scans of real people. A YouTube video shows off the results.

Toppan is positioning this as a solution to alleviate labor shortages, citing aging workforces in advanced economies — which is a genuine problem in Toppan’s native Japan as it has one of the lowest birth rates in the world and a rapidly aging labor force.

“Photorealistic virtual humans featured in corporate advertising and video content have garnered growing attention in recent years, and they are now being deployed for functions such as reception desks and facility guidance,” the collaborative announcement says.

The biometric data is captured on a Light Stage, a high-precision face scanning equipment developed by the University of Southern California, at Toppan’s Virtual Human Lab. The virtual humans function essentially as user interfaces, with perhaps a slightly uncanny smile, in sectors such as hospitality, retail, entertainment, education and healthcare.

“Digital Domain has a long track record of experience in the film industry for light stage production and also has a market-ready solution for the industry called Momentum Cloud, so we expect significant synergy from this collaboration,” Hiroshi Asada, head of Toppan Holdings’ Business Innovation Center, said.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by the two companies will see Toppan conducting face scans on a Light Stage, evaluating quality and developing business models for customized virtual humans, and providing original virtual human characters. Digital Domain, for its part, will import the high-resolution data obtained from the Light Stage into its trademarked Momentum Cloud platform to create and operate photorealistic virtual humans.

The companies hope workflow optimizations will reduce lead times and costs for producing virtual humans, which will enable a “prompt and efficient” response to requests for original character production. “The virtual human solutions created in collaboration with Toppan Holdings will utilize both companies’ technological strengths to enhance virtual humans’ quality, performance, and effectiveness,” said William Wong, CEO of Digital Domain.

“These solutions will effectively meet market demands and create diverse application scenarios, opening up new opportunities for innovative business models,” he continued.

Toppan has experience with virtual humans, with the company teaming up with digital startup 3dig in 2021 to create a dataset of rights-free, photorealistic AI-generated human figures that were not connected with actual people. Digital Domain meanwhile has a background in the entertainment industry with experience in Hollywood, VFX, virtual humans, TV, commercials and immersive experiences.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  Digital Domain  |  synthetic data  |  Toppan  |  virtual human