Grant: Applied Research and Development Grants - Level 1

Kavtek and Sheridan College's Screen Industries Research and Training Centre (SIRT) propose to collaborate on research and development of a character generation workflow to create photo-realistic virtual humans for use within augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) applications. The project will expedite Kavtek's goals to establish a workflow that enables avatar creation that better represents humans with greater visual accuracy. Over the course of the project, human scanning workflows will be tested and evaluated within the context of being applied to real-time rendering environments. Software-based approaches to the automation of reconstructing 3d geometry from photo scan data will occur. Embracing cutting edge approaches to digitize human faces will expand Kavtek's efficiency when creating virtual avatars and will enable exploration of the experiential impact that high fidelity characters can have on the user experience. Kavtek intends to apply the project results to increase the realism of digital humans deployed to their interactive applications on mobile platforms. This project aligns with SIRT's goals of supporting leading-edge Canadian screen industry R&D and of remaining at the forefront of emerging technology application and development.