GOVERNMENT

With a wink of the eye or an arch of the eyebrow, what is that intriguing stranger telling you? Silicon Graphics today announced that through the use of its advanced visualization technology, the answers to these and other questions of non-verbal communications may be uncovered with unusual precision by Ontario, Canada-based researchers at the Sheridan Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, in collaboration with the University of Toronto and Queens University. Using a Silicon Graphics Onyx4 UltimateVision system, these scientists are in the process of creating the first research-quality simulated human face, whose features can be controlled by a mouse right down to a Mona Lisa smile. The project will help isolate facial patterns humans routinely use to communicate, and do so with more scientific rigor than any real human being could muster. "It's one thing to simulate a human being for a movie like Toy Story, but quite another to do so in a verifiable research setting that meets the demands of psychologists and linguists," said Avrim Katzman, director of the Visualization Design Institute, which purchased the Onyx4 system for the project. Katzman's group is part of the Sheridan Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning. Katzman likens the research to what geneticists do in isolating the function of a single gene -- by eliminating that gene and growing a lab animal without it. With the Onyx4 system, researchers will be able to isolate the effects of a raised eyebrow, a flared nostril, or a wink of the eye to determine how each human gesture -- viewed strictly on its own -- is interpreted by a human subject. Among the benefits of attaining a complete understanding of what each facial motion conveys, is the ability to better understand people who may experience challenges in communicating, such as those affected by autism. Creating a truly interactive human face will not be easy. The researchers will begin by using a 3D scanner to capture an actual human face, a process commonly used in the film industry, in which a model's physical characteristics are measured with laser beams and recorded in digital form. Data on everything from motion to musculature will be added to create the finished interactive model, which can be modified with a mouse. The challenge of getting the simulated face to work in real time will also require the heavy duty graphics processing associated with more conventional 3D projects, including automobile design, molecular modeling, and weather prediction. The Silicon Graphics Onyx4 UltimateVision family offers the visualization power of up to 32 tightly coupled graphics processors, which was previously accessible only to major facilities with large research budgets, to organizations with very modest budgets. "Silicon Graphics Onyx is the absolute ultimate in visualization, providing the best graphics performance on any platform," says Katzman. "Nothing else compares." Katzman has employed SGI hardware in both teaching and research for the last 20 years.