Real-time Upper Body Articulation of Humans in a Networked Interactive Virtual Environment

With the recent introduction of realistic human entities into large-scale networked virtual environments, there exists a requirement for dynamic, real-time human motion. The future for distributed virtual environments will include upwards of 100,000 participants capable of par- ticipating from anywhere in the world, interact- ing with any entity that exists in the environ- ment. In order to attain a high level of realism in the virtual world, the user must be able to dynamically interact with his environment. For the lower body, we find that scripted locomotive motion is adequate. However, the same is not true for upper body motion because humans by their nature interact with their environment largely with their hands. The focus of this research is the development of an interactive interface which will achieve dynamic upper body motion currently not possible with scripted systems. We present the basics of ongoing work involving the representation of realistic, real- time upper body motion of a virtual human in a networked virtual environment using magnetic sensors attached to the user.