The Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Technology Association Annual Meeting & Metaverse Innovative Development Forum kicked off on January 25, 2022. The annual meeting was attended by leaders and experts from Shanghai Science and Technology Commission, Shanghai Hongqiao International Central Business District Administrative Committee, Shanghai Association for Science and Technology, Shanghai Science and Technology Exchange Center, among relevant committees and offices.

Shanghai Emogent, as a representative firm in the virtual human sector, was invited to the event where institutions of higher learning and high-tech businesses, including Fudan University and Sense Time, discussed about the advanced technologies and future business opportunities in Metaverse. Dr. Zhang Xueyuan, CTO of Emogent, delivered a keynote speech "Virtual Digital Humans See Comprehensive and Deep Industrial Application".

IRENE
--A glowing business card for communication with the Metaverse

If the metaverse is likened to a spaceship sailing into the future, a virtual digital human probably holds the first ticket. As metaverse fever sweeps the world, the human-like virtual beings have received clamorous public attention for its surprising influence beyond the virtual world. Virtual digital humans, born from conception, have experienced an evolution from individual modeling to community creation, and are commercially applied as digital workers, virtual idols, virtual ambassadors, virtual presenters, etc. They are playing an increasingly valuable role in social interaction, media, marketing, traditional industries, and other fields. Incomplete statistics shows that there were at least 19 finance transactions around virtual idols/digital humans in 2021. The "In-Depth Report on Virtual Digital Human Industry" estimates the overall market size of virtual digital human industry in China at RMB 270 billion by 2030. At the core of interaction with the metaverse, virtual digital humans embrace a promising future of wider application.

HMI evolution is built on trust. The "humanity" in digital humans is brought to a new level from audio to visual presentation, and, more importantly, demonstrates itself in natural conversations between real and virtual humans, as opposed to command-based HMI. Since its establishment in 2016, Emogent has been committed to continuous R&D of an AI Interaction System, highlighting digital intelligent human as its core. The self-developed hyper-realistic digital human IRENE is empowered by the most advanced technologies of speech recognition, semantic understanding, and speech synthesis with the ability to speak and comprehend language just as real humans; thanks to self-developed engines for highly accurate lip synthesis, facial expressions and motion synthesis, and intelligent cloud brain platform, IRENE is endowed with rich facial expressions and ability to express, keenly sense user behavior and interact with users in multiple dimensions.

Digital human as "golden sector"
--A SaaS platform integrating idol and service

At present, Emogent is developing a one-stop solution platform for IRENE as an intelligent digital human in Metaverse, also a SaaS platform that combines virtual idol and AI services. The AI-powered digital human is equipped with a variety of capabilities, such as speech, conversation, vision, mapping, and multi-modal interaction, and can be customized for her external appearance, clothes, facial expressions, gestures, voice, and emotion. Everything becomes easy from device access, avatar customization to feature development.

Emogent boasts capabilities of not only creation of hyper-realistic digital humans in all processes, but also R&D of underlying AI technologies, content production, knowledge mapping, and conversation design. The Emogent digital human IRENE, for example, is far more than an AI tool providing SDK interface, and she is an AI service star empowering a better life.

Applied to cultural expo and tourism, IRENE serves as an intelligent visit guide embedded on smart large screens, WeChat applet and other terminals, offering a better experience for visitors through intelligent interaction. Once called, IRENE responds immediately to a question with exhibits introduction.

Applied to smart home, smart community and smart city, IRENE is an intelligent life service assistant, providing all-round services for basic necessities of life. Besides command-based control over home appliances, IRENE learns well about users’ lifestyles and shows she cares.

There is a tremendous potential in applying IRENE in exhibition, finance, tourism, or education, healthcare, entertainment, etc. To the satisfaction of human beings spiritually, IRENE helps businesses with digital upgrade and thus empowers a better life.