- Story
Developing VR avatars more easily
30.10.2024 The Avatar Behaviour Platform makes it possible to develop characters in virtual reality applications more cheaply and quickly than in the past. This will result in VR becoming more accessible and more versatile.
Key points at a glance
- Social workers would benefit from being able to prepare for certain tasks using virtual reality (VR).
- However, VR applications are still expensive.
- BFH is seeking to reduce the complexity and cost of VR projects.
What problem is the Avatar Behaviour Platform attempting to solve?
In virtual reality (VR), users find themselves in a virtual 3D environment and can experience things that, without VR, they would not be able to experience at all, or only with a great deal of effort and/or expense.
If virtual people are to appear in these VR experiences, this entails an extremely complex and expensive process to develop the necessary VR applications. The Avatar Behaviour Platform (ABP) now provides a basis for developing such applications more quickly and easily.
Training courses that would involve a great deal of effort in real life can take place virtually.
How does the project benefit society?
The benefit of the project lies in the fact that it allows virtual training to take place that would normally require a great deal of effort and/or expense in the real world. For example, BFH researchers have developed a VR application that allows users to carry out a home inspection in the context of social work. It gives them an idea of a typical client home situation and prepares them for a real home visit. Users can learn whether a household is suitable for someone with dementia or for children, for example.
Another project application is a VR experience for the Roman Museum in Avenches, in which a virtual tour guide takes museum visitors through the monuments of what was once the city of Aventicum and explains the sights.
What exactly did researchers develop? How did they approach the project?
The ABP can now be used to develop 3D applications in which users are confronted with virtual avatars. An avatar can be programmed with a simple artificial behaviour for a specific purpose. For example, when users point to a virtual object or go to a specific location, the avatar begins to speak.
These applications were developed with the 3D Unity engine and so can be used flexibly on a PC, in a browser or in VR goggles. App developers are also free to create their own VR worlds: both interaction space and avatars are easy to design using 3D models.
What were the challenges?
Creating a VR application is expensive because it involves highly specialised software with a great depth of detail. As they always do with software projects, the BFH researchers have endeavoured to reduce the underlying ABP complexity. This makes it much easier and quicker to reuse the functionality in a subsequent application.
And what’s next for the project?
The BFH researchers are currently seeking funding options for ABP applications in social work and at the Avenches Roman Museum.
More about the project and the BFH expert behind it
The Avatar Behaviour Platform was developed as part of an inter-school project between the School of Engineering and Information Technology (cpvrLab) and the School of Social Work (VRLab).
The project was funded as part of the Human Digital Transformation strategic thematic field and headed by Prof. Marcus Hudritsch.
Marcus Hudritsch is a lecturer in computer science at BFH. His research focuses on image analysis, computer graphics, augmented and virtual reality, and image-based machine learning.
