Personalized avatars for mobile entertainment

LiveMail is a prototype system that allows mobile subscribers to communicate using personalized 3D face models created from images taken by their phone cameras. The user takes a snapshot of someone's face - a friend, famous person, themselves, even a pet - using the mobile phone's camera. After a quick manipulation on the phone, a 3D model of that face is created and can be animated simply by typing in some text. Speech and appropriate animation of the face are created automatically by speech synthesis. Animations can be sent to others as real 3D animated messages or as short videos in MMS. They can be used as fun messages, greeting cards etc. The system is based on a client/server communication model. The clients are mobile devices or web clients so messages can be created, sent and received on the mobile phone or on a web page. The client has a user interface that allows the user to input a facial image and place a simple mask on it to mark the main features. The client th...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2006
• Where: MIS
• Authors: Tomislav Kosutic, Miran Mosmondor, Ivan Andrisek, Mario Weber, Maja Matijasevic, Igor S. Pandzic
• Keywords: MIS 2006, Mobile Phone, Multimedia, Speech Synthesis, User