Virtual humans poised for big advances

Gestures, expressions, voices getting closer to those of real people

China's virtual human industry is poised for rapid growth, with applications in sectors such as broadcasting, entertainment, retail, finance and education. It is also possible that everyone eventually will have their own avatar, experts said.

Gestures, expressions and the voice of digital humans will come closer to that of real people with technological advances such as artificial intelligence, computer graphics and motion capture, they said. Motion capture is a technology that can assess a person's movements and translate them into a computer-generated 3D character.

Chinese tech giant Baidu Inc has released its digital avatar platform, Xiling, which integrates the generation of digital humans and content production, as the company looks to leverage its artificial intelligence capabilities in the fast-growing metaverse. The metaverse is the immersive online world where people can gather virtually and interact thanks to advanced technologies.