Vivox to Lipsync: No voice for you
By Eric Reuters
Vivox executives told Reuters at the Virtual Worlds Conference there’s no plan to open access to Second Life’s voice stream to external developers, limiting the practical usefulness of planned “lipsync” technology.
Vivox created the technology that drives the voice chat feature in several virtual worlds, including Second Life but also EVE Online and the planned Sony@Home. The developers behind “lipsync” invented a means to make an avatar’s mouth move in rhythm to its voice, but they cannot make an avatar’s mouth move realistically because they lack direct access to the Vivox voice steam. As a result, the planned Lipsync technology creates an effect similar to watching a movie dubbed over in a foreign language.
Lipsync technology is slated for eventual inclusion into the main Second Life viewer.
“We’re keen on integrating lip-sync, though it’s held up on some implementation details on our end right now so there’s no particular time frame,” Tofu Linden told Reuters in Second Life.
Vivox spokesmen acknowledged that avatar lip movements which properly matched speech would greatly enhance the virtual world experience, and said they hoped that feature would come with the eventual widespread adoption of “3D cameras.”
