If Cortana had a body, how would she look? Before we could imagine it, one man already gave an answer. #objectmagic
Jarem Archer caught our interest after posting a video of his Cortana appliance on YouTube. In it, Cortana, Microsoft’s virtual assistant, has a holographic body which moves naturally to show answers to user inquiries. “It’s basically what I imagined Microsoft’s version of Alexa or Google Home would be like if they were to use the holographic AI sidekick from the Halo franchise”, writes the creator.
In a lengthy blog post, Archer explains that the model used for Cortana was none other than his wife: “Cortana’s animations were recorded with the help of my lovely wife who regrettably endured many takes of motion capture in our living room. ” Before she stepped in front of the camera though, the creator made a custom enclosure and 3D printed every part of the project. He added an omnidirectional microphone on top of the unit and a speaker in the holographic assistant’s pedestal.
Archer says that Cortana comes alive thanks to a USB monitor that reflects the image on three panes of mirror glass. It’s able to follow him as he moves due to real-time face tracking through the front camera. All interactions are powered by a Windows 10 device and a built-in Arduino that helps the developer control the lights. As for the software used to animate Microsoft’s assistant, the developer employed a Unity 3D app that communicates with a proxy service “that parses data going to and from the native Cortana web service.”
Find out more about Jarem Archer’s creation on his blog, here.
Follow TechTheLead on Google News to get the news first.
