Nvidia launches Omniverse Avatar platform that uses 3D animation and AI

Omniverse Avatar, a platform for creating AI characters, has been announced by NVIDIA. The programme uses AI, simulation, natural language processing, recommendation engines and 3D ray-traced graphics. NVIDIA has brought all these technologies together to produce interactive avatars, as shown in the video below.

Omniverse Avatar is part of the wider NVIDIA Omniverse, a set of tools for crafting virtual worlds that is currently in beta with around 70,000 users. NVIDIA suggests that applications for these interactive characters include day to day customer service interactions, such as ordering in a restaurant or making a reservation, that it believes will lead to happier customers.

There are various mini-projects under the Omniverse Avatar umbrella, such as Project Tokkio, that focuses on interactive characters for customer support. In demonstrating the feature, Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA, showcased how you could apply this avatar in a restaurant setting. The video below shows an animated character helping customers order burgers, answering their questions and maintaining eye contact.

Another of these mini activities is Project Maxine, which uses avatars to solve common problems with video conferencing. In this demonstration, a person speaking in English in a noisy cafe can be heard clearly and translated in real-time into several other languages. All of this relays the user's distinct voice. It remains to be seen how people react to these avatars and their impact on customer satisfaction.

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