A method for creating interactive, user-resembling avatars

Content Provider	Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
Author	Igor Macedo Silva Renan C. Moioli
Abstract	Virtual reality (VR) applications have disseminated throughout several fields, with a special quest for immersion. The avatar is one of the key constituents of immersive applications, and avatar resemblance can provoke diverse emotional responses from the user. Yet a lot a virtual reality systems struggle to implement real life-like avatars. In this work, we propose a novel method for creating interactive, user-resembling avatars using available commercial hardware and software. Avatar visualization is possible with a point-cloud or a contiguous polygon surface, and avatar interactions with the virtual scenario happens through a body joint-approximation for contact. In addition, the implementation could be easily extended to other systems and its modular architecture admits improvement both on visualization and physical interactions. The code is under Apache License 2.0 and is freely available as Supplemental Information 1 in this article.
Related Links	https://peerj.com/articles/cs-128.pdf https://peerj.com/articles/cs-128/
e-ISSN	23765992
DOI	10.7717/peerj-cs.128
Journal	PeerJ Computer Science
Volume Number	3
Language	English
Publisher	PeerJ Inc.
Publisher Date	2017-01-01
Publisher Place	United States
Access Restriction	Open
Subject Keyword	Electronic computers. Computer science Virtual Reality Immersion Oculus Rift Kinect Avatar Embodiment
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article