Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software - Kotaku Comments

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

monkey_87 — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 19:11:10 MST

Cut the crappy experiments already Sega, where the hell is my Dreamcast 2?

Or for that matter, a decent Sonic game?

monkey_87

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

Witzbold — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 06:21:52 MST

@gatsuuga: [www.youtube.com]

holyshit that was creepy. D:

Witzbold

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

Knukleur — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 05:56:20 MST

They tested this with recordings of Mariah Carey, and every thing she said produced the same "come hither" look on her fembot, even when she was doing anti-Mariah.

Knukleur

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

ara — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 01:02:29 MST

@Torgen: Automated and pre-calculated are not opposites. It's nice to have at least part of the syncing process automated, even if you can them to the disc instead of running the simulation realtime during the gameplay.

ara

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

chaos242 — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 23:13:58 MST

Fuck all this fancy-shmancy shit. I still have my Teddy Ruxpin and he works just fine. I can put my MC Hammer tape in his back and he sings right along. I think he's up there with some of the other past technological wonders like the aqueduct and the Sphinx.

chaos242

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

boopadoo — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 21:24:33 MST

Blue. Blue! BLUE! DAMMIT!

boopadoo

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

DARK DVNT; DARKDVNT [Xfire/Yahoo/Aim] ;Plz visit my website, k, thx. — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 20:48:36 MST

I would imagine many developers would use this for less important charaters in a game. For close-ups and in-the-character's-face scenes I would imagine devs would rather do some parts of the emotion expression on the character manually; just to get the right amount of wrinkles and such. It would save work and time for the devs with no doubt. I am interested to see if this surfaces and becomes widely used. I am sitting and I am watching. .
....
This may take some time.

DARK DVNT; DARKDVNT [Xfire/Yahoo/Aim] ;Plz visit my website, k, thx.

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

gatsuuga — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 16:44:25 MST

@sir_blazeAlot: If you think that guy's creepy, DEFINITELY do not search Youtube for "Max Headroom Video Pirate".

gatsuuga

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

TWEEDLEDEEDEEZ — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 13:25:02 MST

@Guild_Navigator: I agree....I'm only 21 too.

TWEEDLEDEEDEEZ

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

Guild_Navigator — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 13:13:42 MST

The amount of people here that don't know who Max Headroom is makes me feel really old. On top of that, the cafe 80s scene in Back to the Future 2 must have been really confusing for some people.

Guild_Navigator

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

Electroqueen — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 13:07:25 MST

Odd, that freakishly looks like Tony Snow...

Electroqueen

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

theherlihyboy — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 13:04:01 MST

If Sega makes a Max Headroom game with this, I refuse to buy another Sega game for at least a year. >_>

theherlihyboy

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

KaneTaker — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 12:51:00 MST

@Dexor: Matt Frewer currently plays Jim Taggart on "Eureka" on SciFi. Great show. Also, he is playing Moloch in "Watchmen" according to [imdb.com]

KaneTaker

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

Guild_Navigator — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 12:38:44 MST

@rususeruru:

Well, I know that there are a few multi player games that do have characters flap their mouths to your voice but as far as showing expressions with it, I haven't seen any.

Guild_Navigator

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

sir_blazeAlot — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 12:35:29 MST

Wow.....who the fuck is that dude up there? lol, I have never seen that creepy/fake ass looking dude before in my life, I am clearly missing something here.....I got some chills/creepy feelings when I looked at that fool, anyone elaborate?

sir_blazeAlot

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

Reil — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 12:35:21 MST

@Guild_Navigator: Only if an angry 13 year old, in fact, looks like an angry 13 year old. That way I can laugh at how the voice recognizer/facial expression thing has determined him to be an angry prepubescent and has thus shown him to be such.

Reil

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

XRA — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 12:34:55 MST

@uvadave: megarace was awesome, i got that shit with my 2x cd rom drive !

XRA

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

Goemon — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 12:16:26 MST

Bring back max bring back max

Goemon

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

Dexor — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 12:12:10 MST

Holy crap, Max Headroom?!

What ever happened to Matt Frewer anyway...?
All I remember is Lawnmower Man 2 and the crappy Dawn of the Dead remake...

Dexor

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

UVaDave — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 12:09:09 MST

@el_gordo: Don't worry I believe you, because I played it too :)

Megarace

UVaDave

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

Automageddon! — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 11:50:40 MST

Sega and testing, that's an oxymoron!

Automageddon!

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

Duoae — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 11:40:59 MST

The source engine has a similar thing to this. You can input an audio file into the editor where it will identify the phenomes (you can assign them as well) and the model's face will 'move to the beat' as it were...

Shame that the source engine was never really taken great advantage of....

Duoae

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

BtownDesignGuy — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 11:36:26 MST

That has to be the best picture posted to accompany an article ever. It's so awesome, I might say it even distracts from the article. I read the headline, I see the picture, I get it. Visual Communication at its finest!

BtownDesignGuy

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

zanzibarlegend — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 11:35:12 MST

sega needs to make great games!! (sonic anyone?) by the way MAX HEADROOM FOR PRES 08! we need more stuttering futurisic and incromprehensive characters

zanzibarlegend

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

DasKonstruct — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 11:31:00 MST

Samuel L is screwed if they ever use this. It'll only be a mad shouting face

DasKonstruct

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

el_gordo — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 11:27:46 MST

Oh SHIT! Do I look like a douche. Well, still! There was this GAME! In the 90s! I was just a kid. But it was awesome! You guys! You gotta believe me!

el_gordo

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

TWEEDLEDEEDEEZ — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 11:27:41 MST

That's pretty cool actually. Hopefully it works out for Sega. I still want to see them do something great...Again.

TWEEDLEDEEDEEZ

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

UVaDave — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 11:22:19 MST

@rususeruru: It's not real facial animations, just the mouth opening and closing, but its hilarious either way.

Chocolate Milk (Contains Harsh language)

UVaDave

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

bigman88zz — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 11:20:12 MST

@el_gordo: erm....[en.wikipedia.org]

bigman88zz

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

Rabidsquirrel — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 11:19:58 MST

Max Headroom game CONFIRMED, Yes the 80's have made such a resurgence this game was needed.

Rabidsquirrel

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

el_gordo — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 11:17:53 MST

Nope, not Max Headroom. The dude in the pic is the announcer from a mid-90s PC racing game. There were weapons... powerups... sort of F-Zero-ish... fuck, what was the name! Something "m" sounding. Oh this is going to piss me off.

el_gordo

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

der-Karl — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 11:16:58 MST

That is awesome.

The way I see, they'll be able to easily have almost every random NPC in a game has the same spot on lip and facial movement as the games important characters and conversations.

Case in point, Mass Effect. Lip syncing for the main characters was great most of the time, most other NPCs were kind of spotty at times.

der-Karl

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

Donner, party of 4... er...3? — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 11:16:39 MST

Regarding saving the developers time, I think all that time saved on syncing movement to speech will have to be spent finding voice actors that are worth a damn. No more calling in the janitor "in a pinch" unless you want every single character he voices to not just sound drunk, but look it too...

Donner, party of 4... er...3?

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

Rususeruru — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 11:14:17 MST

@Guild_Navigator: I thought some version of Rainbow Six already did this for multiplayer? I could be mistaken though.

Rususeruru

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

Torgen got his apology faceplate but not his fixed GH3 disc — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 11:12:32 MST

@KaneTaker: If the audio is pre-recorded, the lip sync doesn't need to be automatic. They can pre-calculate it all and put it on the disc instead of using CPU time to figure out what it is.
If this does get used to lip sync voice chat in real time, it will be funny to see how it handles non-voice noises. Having your character mouth out the dog running through the kitchen might be interesting.

Torgen got his apology faceplate but not his fixed GH3 disc

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

taftsearlobe23 — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 11:12:15 MST

hmmm wasn't Valve working on this a long time ago and they where going to add it to Team Fortress 2?

taftsearlobe23

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

Satsuz — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 11:11:24 MST

This is the kinda thing that I've always seen coming into play heavily in gaming's future. The next big thing being combining this with NPCs that understand natural language, typed or spoken. My tech-sense tells me that this is just the first baby steps into that territory, though. I'd be surprised to see this sort of thing working in the next 10 years.

Satsuz

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

KaneTaker — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 11:09:12 MST

Didn't Sega start this with Shenmue? That game, if I remember correctly, had automatic lip-sync. Worked very well. Adding emotion to that could be amazing.

KaneTaker

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

Islandkiwi — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 11:07:45 MST

Good ol' Matt Frewer. I used to love that guy.

Islandkiwi

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

HawaiianActor — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 11:06:47 MST

@Guild_Navigator: that would be fantastic! little details like that are what make a good game into a great game

HawaiianActor

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

gdf — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 11:05:41 MST

I want to see the surprise on the guards' faces as I stab them in the neck in AC whilst shouting "Surprise cockfag!".

But sounds like cool stuff if it works. It would be good for something like Elder Scrolls V.

gdf

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

icepick314 — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 10:57:19 MST

Seaman 3?

icepick314

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

givetozim! — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 10:55:36 MST

Sweet cabinet making Jesus! thats creepy...

givetozim!

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

Guild_Navigator — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 10:55:22 MST

Now all we need is a real time version of this that will emote your character when you speak in multi player games.

Guild_Navigator

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

Marooner — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 10:54:45 MST

This could be terrifying, with every person looking and talking like the G-man. Even women.

Marooner

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

MasterOfPastures — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 10:53:27 MST

Wow... expect a rating system to be invented that will be used to cataloge the voice-actors according to the synchronisity between the voice and the facial expressions.

MasterOfPastures

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

Witzbold — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 10:50:45 MST

Max Headroom 2 here we come!!!!

Cyberpunk at its finest! ;D

Witzbold

Sega Testing Auto Speech-to-Face Software

fnool — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 10:49:44 MST

Oh lord. Is that Max Headroom?

fnool