Reading lips in Second Life
By Eric Reuters
Voice in Second Life can be a tricky thing. Remembering to press the “talk” button on cue often means residents stop moving their avatar, and a voice chat can be visually flat, with the occasional avatar slumping over in Second Life’s “away” pose if they go too long without moving their mouse.
But a new technology could add a whole new level of immersion to voice chat. Called “Lipsync,” now a viewer alternative to the Second Life browser, it lets Second Life avatars move their lips in rhythm to their speech.
Anyone with the viewer installed will not only see their own avatar speaking, but also any avatar using the voice channel, said Brigit Lichtenegger (Second Life: Evo Szuyuan) of Rotterdam, whose company Creative Machinery is hosting the viewer files. Despite the name “Lipsync,” the mouth movements won’t match the speech. The resulting effect is a bit like watching a movie dubbed in a foreign language.
Watch a demo video of Lipsync.
The Lipsync technology was originally coded by avatar Mm Alder in conjunction with IBM, but has been placed in the open source domain under a general public license. Lichtenegger said Linden Lab officials have green-lighted Lipsync’s inclusion into Second Life’s default browser, but Linden officials were unavailable to comment.
(Video courtesy of Creative Machinery)
