DECAD Interactive Demo

DECAD stands for DFKI Embodied Conversational Agent Demo. It is a multi-functional interactive virtual agent which can be used in a wide variety of contexts, such as human-agent controlled experiments or front-end of chatbot systems.

In the past years, many research colleagues and customers asked: "Do you have an avatar for me?". The context of application were multiple: from psychology experiments to simulation of training environments to front-end for chat-bot systems. However, building and programming an interactive real-time virtual agent is a time-consuming job which requires specific competence and expertise. Additionally, each virtual character must be configured and tuned according to the specific needs of the application domain.
That's why the project DECAD (DFKI Embodied Conversational Agent Demo) is here.
DECAD is a demonstration of the new interactive virtual agent developed at DFKI. It has been architected with customization and modularity in mind: each functionality is embedded in a separate component that can be enabled or disabled according to the specific needs.
DECAD was born to answer: "Yes, I have an avatar for you".

Implemented:

• Eye blinking
• Real-time connection to MaryTTS and playback of sound and visemes
• Real-time materials
• Support for Desktop, WebGL, and Android platforms
• Ambient motion
• Gesture library: nodding, shaking, some hand gestures
• Eyes gaze
• Emotional facial expressions database
• Camera movements
• Full HTML/Javascript API
• Clothes in the production pipeline
• Include head/neck rotation in gaze control

Planned:

• Clothes database
• Integration with Visual SceneMaker
• Locomotion
• Finger Pointing
• Provide an SDK for custom embedding in HTML pages

Click on the single release entries to see them in a separate window/tab.

• 2018-10-04: (alpha7) Added clothes, eye gaze includes neck movement, HTML/JavaScript API.
• 2017-11-24: (alpha6) Added new short hair, gestures and ambient motion, 3-point lights, optimized profiles for web and mobile.
• 2017-10-24: (alpha5) Added hair, reworked the GUI. Includes camera movements and some facial expressions.
• 2017-09-01: (alpha4) First release online. Includes eye blinking and TTS.

DECAD is built thanks to the following projects:

• The Blender 3D authoring software, to edit the character and prototyping new features;
• The ManuelBastioniLab for the creation of the virtual characters;
• The MaryTTS text-to-speech software for the real-time speech synthesis and lip-synch;
• The Unity 3D game engine to deploy on Desktop, WebGL, and Mobile platforms.

For more information please contact:

• Fabrizio Nunnari (fabrizio dot nunnari at dfki dot de)
• Alexis Heloir (alexis dot heloir at dfki dot de)

Developers and Contributors:

• Fabrizio Nunnari
• Alexis Heloir
• Kiarash Tamaddon
• Timo Gühring