A webGL talking head for mobile devices

Luciaweb is a 3D Italian talking avatar based on the new WebGL technology. WebGL is the standard programming library to develop 3D computer graphics inside the web browsers. In the last year we developed a facial animation system based on this library to interact with the user in a bimodal way. The overall system is a client-server application using the http protocol: we have a client (a browser or an app) and a web server. No software download and no plugin are required. All the software reside on the server and the visualization player is delivered inside the html pages that the client ask at the beginning of the connection. On the server side a software called AudioVideo Engine generates the phonemes and visemes information needed for the animation. The demo called Emotional Parrot shows the ability to reproduce the same input in different emotional states. This is the first WebGL software running on iOS device ever.