It was the first visit of its kind in 12 years.Ĭomputer-generated characters could also be used in movies, making it possible to make new films starring actors who have already died.įacial animation could also provide a more cost-effective means of video telephony. ![]() Relations With South Korea: In the latest sign of a diplomatic thaw, South Korea’s president, Yoon Suk Yeol, visited Japan for a summit with Fumio Kishida, the Japanese prime minister.But a survey published earlier this year points to the risks these sites pose to wildlife conservation, public health and animal welfare. Animal Cafes: The country’s exotic animal cafes are popular with locals and tourists.But this out-of-season farming has a huge environmental cost. Strawberries in Winter : The strawberry crop in Japan peaks in wintertime, thanks to greenhouses and giant heaters.But the owners of hot spring resorts are standing in the way. Geothermal Power: Japan’s abundant geothermal energy could play a major role in replacing the nation’s coal, gas or nuclear plants.It would be only natural for such a human-like assistant to be given a personality by having a face, perhaps of the user's favorite actress or actor, or spouse. While existing agents now possess only primitive abilities, in the future it is envisioned that they will be able to act on their own, fetching data from a database, sifting through a person's electronic mail for important messages and arranging appointments. Hiroshi Harashima at the University of Tokyo has held three annual conferences entitled "Faces," bringing together engineers, psychologists, video-game creators and even makeup artists.ĭriving the move toward using the face as the interface is the development of so-called agents, which are computer programs designed to act as personal assistants. Last November, the National Science Foundation sponsored the first workshop on computerized facial animation at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Indeed, facial information science, as it might be called, is becoming a discipline in its own right, attracting not only computer scientists and animation experts, but psychologists, whose knowledge is needed to understand how people make facial expressions and interpret them. At the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, Japan's largest telephone company, researchers are working on the "human-image reader," a computer system that will recognize facial expressions, understand gestures and even read lips. Other researchers are trying to use computers to recognize human faces and facial expressions. Putting a friendly face on a computer is just one aspect of the work. If the person's question is outside the knowledge stored in the computer, the face on the screen will shrug. If the computer's sound-recognition system cannot discern what the person is saying, the face on the screen will say as much and give a puzzled look. Takeuchi and his colleagues have developed a rudimentary system in which a person can obtain information about certain Sony products by conversing with a talking head on a computer screen. "What we want is not intelligence but humanity."Īlready Dr. "Facial expression is a more sophisticated way of communications," said Dr. Both the computer and the person will be able to read each other's facial expressions, gleaning the understanding that can be communicated through a smile or a scowl, a nod of the head, an arched eyebrow or a piercing gaze.Īnd computers, now known for their cold logic, will use their faces to convey emotions. ![]() In the future, some computer scientists say, people will converse with a face on the computer screen. It is one of many efforts in Japan, the United States and Europe to create artificial faces for computers to make it easier for people to communicate with the machines. ![]() The face is created by computer graphics and controlled by software. Takeuchi's computer is a seemingly human face that tries to maintain eye contact with the visitor, tracking him as he moves around the room. A VISITOR to Akikazu Takeuchi's office at the Sony Computer Science Laboratory might be forgiven for feeling spied upon.
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