The character of Joey Tribbiani, from popular sitcom Friends, will become the first television persona to be "virtually immortalised" in a digital avatar, The Guardian reported on Friday. Researchers associated with the University of Leeds analysed the body language, facial expressions and voice of the character, played by actor Matt le Blanc, to create his digital form. The avatar will be transformed into a chatbot – a computer programme that simulates conversation with human users.
The team of researchers, comprising computer scientists James Charles, Derek Magee and David Hogg, is formulating a series of algorithms that will be used to capture the character's body language, facial expressions and voice. A "digitally synthesised mouth" will be superimposed over video recordings of LeBlanc as Tribbiani.
The project also analyses the sitcom's script to figure each character's speech styles. The aim of the project is for the character's digital avatar to be able to say new words using his or her trademark style. Some of the sentences that the digital character currently uses are, “Hey Ross! Do you want me to talk to some lady?” and “I like pizza with cheese”.
A team member told the English daily that they plan on improving the avatar to facilitate "interaction with real people and between avatars.” The researchers said the initiative could also be applied as a "face and personality to existing voice-only assistants” including Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana or Amazon’s Alexa.The development comes years after conclusion of the series, which was one of the most-watched sitcoms of its time.
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