InterDigital Announces Participation in New INVICTUS Project to Shape the Next Generation of Digital Avatars

InterDigital partners with Fraunhofer Heinrich-Hertz-Institut (HHI), University of Rennes 1, Ubisoft, and Volograms to create tools for virtual storytelling and digital humans

InterDigital, Inc., a mobile and video technology research and development company, announced its participation in the Horizon 2020 INVICTUS project—a collaborative research effort developing authoring tools for the creation of volumetric digital humans and avatars for gaming and interactive virtual applications. The project aims to scope the technologies required for realistic digital avatars and shape new possibilities for digital storytelling.

The INVICTUS project is comprised of five partners, including: Fraunhofer Heinrich-Hertz-Institute (HHI), University of Rennes 1, InterDigital, Ubisoft and Volograms. The project has received a €1.9 million (approx. $2.2 million) grant from the EU Horizon 2020 project, and has been tasked with designing three innovative digital human authoring tools which will reduce manual labor while improving creativity and productivity. Specifically, INVICTUS members are tasked with designing tools that will 1) enact high-resolution volumetric captures of the motion and appearance of digital characters, enabling their use and manipulation within off-line productions like film quality and real-time rendering productions; 2) perform edits on high-fidelity volumetric appearances and motions like performing appearance stylization; and 3) build upon interactive virtual reality (VR ) technologies to immerse and enable storytellers within virtual representations of their stories, to alter decor, layouts, animated characters, and other elements of the virtual world.

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The INVICTUS project is bolstered by high-level partners from across the digital creative ecosystem. InterDigital contributes a layer of interactive tools developed to support the creation and stylization of virtual avatars to further the project’s overall goal of developing avatars and volumetric content for new media and gaming experiences. Incorporating InterDigital’s research into the development of these tools will ensure compatibility across the industry’s key players and partners in avatar creation and virtual stylization.

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The leadership of Ubisoft within the consortium will expand the research applications to the gaming market, while collaborations with the University of Rennes 1 will support the scientific impact and promotion of this research.

“InterDigital is honored to join the INVICTUS project alongside our industry’s other leading technology changemakers to develop the tools that enable us to craft hyper-realistic avatars in a realistic virtual world,” said Gael Seydoux, Senior Director at InterDigital’s Immersive Lab. “This critical research will not only lay the foundations for how we develop and manipulate virtual avatars and digital humans, but also draft a blueprint of how these tools and technologies will be implemented to make traditional media more compelling and immersive, while offering incredible opportunities for applications in cutting-edge VR, AR, and immersive gaming experiences.”

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