Soul Machines, the NZ company behind digitally created avatars that can put a human-like face on chatbots, is offerings its customers a tool to enable them to customise its digital creations.
Using its new Digital DNA tool, Soul Machines says individuals and companies can create unlimited numbers of digital humans, determining the colour of eyes, shape of face, hair and skin colour, age and "even … how many wrinkles and skin blemishes to show."
Soul Machines' digital humans are already in service with a number of global brand, one of which, Daimlers, has invested in the company.
Soul Machines says Digital DNA has been created over the past four years by capturing the numerous Soul Machines created digital humans, including their intelligence and physical characteristics, to construct a virtual gene pool.
"This gene pool is used to synthesise new digital humans by blending Digital DNA together. This allows Soul Machines to create a completely new digital human in minutes versus the months it previously took."
The models of the 3D faces Soul Machines creates are as close to the real thing as possible and are an important instrument of emotional expression and engagement between people, the company claims.
"Soul Machines models the face in detail, from the way the facial muscles create complex expressions all the way through the eyes that react to images relayed by a computer camera."
The intelligence of its digital humans "comes from an innovative process that uses neural networks to combine biologically inspired models of the human brain and key sensory networks."
Together these "create a virtual central nervous system called the Human Computing Engine," the company says.
"The digital human comes to life when you 'plug' the engaging and interactive artificial humans into the cloud-based Human Computing Engine and the result is an emotionally responsive, artificial human with personality and character that allows machines to talk to humans face-to-face."