Real-time facial capture technology from AMD, Mixamo

• Game developers can capture facial expressions with standard webcams and transfer them in real time onto a 3D character
• Has potential to make its way into consumer software such as video games and video-conferencing apps, AMD claims

AMD has announced a collaboration with Mixamo on the launch of Face Plus, an advanced real-time motion capture and 3D facial animation technology for the Unity game engine (v4.3).
 
Mixamo, an AMD Ventures portfolio company, provides online 3D animation service for game developers. Mixamo's Face Plus plug-in for Unity is designed to enable developers to capture their facial expressions through standard webcams and transfer them in real time onto a 3D character using technology powered by AMD A-Series APUs and GPUs.
 
This real-time capture and animation capability is made possible by offloading Mixamo’s complex algorithms from the CPU (central processing unit) onto AMD’s industry-leading GPU (graphics processing unit) technology, AMD said in a statement.
 
Face Plus was developed for devices that support OpenCL 1.1 or newer versions. Face Plus enables rich, detailed motion capture at full camera frame rates, including typical standard webcam conditions, using an AMD APU (accelerated processing unit), the company claimed.
 
It runs optimally on AMD APUs and GPUs; a system powered by an AMD A10-4600M APU was capable of up to 42 frames-per-second captures in real-time with GPU-acceleration enabled, a 13X performance improvement when compared to using CPU processing alone.
 
By leveraging the full, massive compute power of AMD APUs and GPUs, developers can animate 3D characters in real time allowing for simplified workflows and fewer interruptions in the creative process.
 
While real-time motion capture of facial expressions is currently available as a development tool for content creation, it has the potential to make its way into consumer software such as video games and video conferencing applications, giving consumers the opportunity to animate avatars in real time.
 
 
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