Alphabet Inc. GOOG GOOGL-owned Google AI team’s latest project that can generate high-resolution video avatars from a single image is all the rage on social media nowadays. Here’s everything you need to know about this development in the AI arena.
The Revolutionary Advancement: Google’s Enric Corona and his team unveiled VLOGGER, a groundbreaking tool capable of creating detailed video avatars from just one image. These avatars can be animated to perfectly replicate a person’s speech, movements, facial expressions, and more, ushering in an era of unparalleled realism.
The Intricacies of VLOGGER: VLOGGER utilizes a sophisticated two-stage process to craft lifelike talking videos. Initially, it decodes body motion commands from audio input, encompassing various nuances like gaze, facial expressions, and posture. Subsequently, these commands are employed in the generation of frames through image-to-image translation, incorporating a reference image for identity conditioning.
Exploring Its Potential: According to Google researchers, the primary application of this exceptional model lies in video translation. For instance, VLOGGER can refine an existing video in one language, synchronizing lip and facial movements with new audio inputs.
Beyond this, there are numerous other exciting possibilities, including the development of animated avatars suitable for virtual assistants, chatbots, or characters within gaming realms, all boasting remarkably realistic appearances and motions.
A Glimpse into the Future: At present, VLOGGER remains a research endeavor featuring a handful of engaging demo videos and is not yet available for public testing. However, these demos have triggered a wave of creativity, sparking imaginative ideas for potential future implementations should this technology evolve into a marketable product.