Originally pegged for a May 27 release, Microsoft’s official statement on the release of Avatar Kinect simply states that the new technology/social program (for up to eight people at a time) will be out “later this (northern) spring”. [Microsoft Press Release]
Xbox’s Avatar Kinect is pretty wild: It tracks and replicates your facial expressions with surprising precision. Which probably made you think about having a more realistic Avatar reppin’ yourself owning up 12-year-olds in Halo, or something. But Microsoft Research’s Photo-Real Talking Head project, which uses 2D photos to make a photo-realistic 3D model of a face with the same kind of emotional range, shows why that’s a terrible idea.
