There have been a number of projects and research efforts directed towards
the creation of "virtual humans". Virtual humans have wide applicability
in such areas as human-factors engineering, feature films, performance
animation and multi-user virtual environments.
The Virtual Humans Architecture Group (V-HAG) is designed
to bring together some of the key researchers in the field.
The goal is to identify those areas where commonality across
the various standards initiatives is needed, and then co-ordinate efforts
to achieve a common standard in those areas.
Membership
The V-HAG is currently composed of:
Other members will be added as needed, in order to ensure
that the V-HAG continues to represent the entire Virtual Humans community.
Timetable
The aims of the V-HAG are straightforward:
-
Compile a list of the major Virtual Humans implementations and standards
along with an architectural overview of each. This goal should be
completed by the middle of October of this year.
-
Examine the different systems in detail, and identify those elements
that they have in common. A document will be prepared which highlights
not only these common elements, but also those unique features which
each offers. This document will then be presented to the
broader Virtual Humans community, to serve as a basis for further
discussion. This goal should be complete by the end of November.
-
Put in place a mechanism by which the entire Virtual Humans
community can work towards building a specification for the interchange
and interoperability of virtual humans and their sub-systems.
This mechanism should be in place by the end of this year, and will
center around the v-humans mailing list. The process will be analogous to,
and modeled after, the one which was used to define the VRML specification.
The goal is to have a draft standard in place by
early June, 1997.
Ways of Getting Involved
All members of the Virtual Humans community are encouraged to participate in
the process in the following ways:
-
If you are involved in another standardization effort that relates to
Virtual Humans in some way, please contact us so that those standards
may be represented on the V-HAG.
-
If you are involved in developing software for creating or applying virtual
humans, please submit a description of your overall system architecture to
the V-HAG.
-
Be prepared to participate in the standards process once it begins.
Existing Standards Initiatives
Here is a partial list of initiatives related to
Virtual Humans:
Existing Virtual Humans Systems
Here is a partial list of existing systems that implement
Virtual Humans:
Please contact me if you know of
any other major standards initiatives or research projects that should be
included in the list.
Last updated November 6, 1996