Google teases 3D avatar prototype that mirrors users' likeness — is it in Google Meet's future?

If you're joining a video call via Microsoft Teams or Apple's FaceTime, and don't quite feel like showing your face, both companies provide users an option to use cartoony 3D avatars in their place.

However, as of now, Google has yet to provide users with 3D avatar options that mirrors their likeness. But, that may soon be changing.

Google shared new research on Wednesday about a new video conferencing feature its Google Augmented Reality researchers have been working on called ChatDirector.

What is ChatDirector?

Unlike Microsoft or Apple's 3D avatar solutions, Google's ChatDirector does not turn users into an animated 3D cartoon version of themselves. Instead, ChatDirector scans a user's face and re-creates a full 3D portrait model of it.

From there, ChatDirector places that 3D face model and places it on an avatar body and places them in a virtual room. 

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In one example shown by Google researchers at the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems earlier this year, ChatDirector brings those avatars into settings like a normal office space meeting room and places them behind a virtual desk. In another example, the avatars are placed in a Medieval-looking castle behind a war room strategy-type table.

With ChatDirector, users can move the camera angle within the 3D environment and watch as their 3D avatars move their heads within the space. The 3D avatars also simulate eye contact with the user that is speaking.

The results from ChatDirector are sort of reminiscent of a realistic version of avatars in Meta's Metaverse. And compared to competitor video-conferencing products, ChatDirector very much looks like a work-in-progress. The imagery is very choppy and the 3D face scanning output feels like the triangular models from the early first-generation PlayStation games.

However, it's worth noting that Google publicized this from one of its research teams — not from a product team. The company is not saying that this is a product ready for primetime. It's simply showing off the work its team is doing to understand how this technology can be utilized.

But Google clearly seems to be working in the 3D avatar space now, readying itself for something – perhaps for Google Meet – in the future.

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