Digital Domain Introduced Photorealistic AI-Powered Digital Human Zoey

During the recent FMX event, VFX studio Digital Domain introduced Zoey, an autonomous human which is powered by machine learning and was created using an advanced version of the technology that helped bring Thanos to the big screen.

The creators of Zoey state that their photorealistic digital human is able to remember people and communicate with them including talking to several participants at once. She can understand most questions and formulate proper replies using access to the internet or stored data. Besides, she has her own personality which was created by utilizing multiple forms of machine learning.

Having her own personality also suggests that Zoey can fully emote. For example, if a question seems confusing, she will look puzzled, or if she is told a joke, she will smile. During a conversation, Zoey will also move in accordance with her answers, and even get annoyed, if she's interrupted. Apart from answering questions, she is also able to fully engage in conversation by asking questions herself and trying to learn participants' opinions on a matter.

Zoey is built on its proof-of-concept autonomous human Douglas and is the result of years of research and development headed by the company's internal Digital Humans Group. Her physical appearance is based on actress Zoey Moses, who worked with Digital Domain to create a set of facial movements and expressions. The company used this data along with its proprietary facial animation tool Charlatan to create a flexible digital face, which is capable of reacting in real-time.

Zoey's flexible voice system was built using the AI-powered text-to-speech technology from WellSaid Labs. Due to its tools, Zoey has access to a broad vocabulary of words and phrases which she is capable to vocalize. The developers also note that there are multiple options to control the tone of Zoey's replies: for instance, she can have different levels of enthusiasm that reflect the goal of the particular conversation. She's also able to expand her speech capabilities by incorporating various language packs.

When Zoey is "educated" and ready to interact with the real world, she might be added to a number of platforms, including custom systems designed by potential users, or game engines like Unity or Unreal Engine. Currently, Zoey can run in real-time on Unreal Engine 4.