For the last few weeks, STAR Labs, a subsidiary of Samsung, has been teasing the world with a new “artificial human” dubbed Neon. This idea has gotten many people talking but what exactly is it about? Right now, there are very few official details about the project and what it’s going to do.
However, we do know that it’s probably a digital avatar technology designed to look as realistic as possible. The applications for such avatars look endless. If they are as realistic as we think they are, they could easily find new uses in entertainment and also in business. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see them used as guides or even as receptionists in a virtual business environment. But that’s just speculation.
Nonetheless, it’s just outstanding what STAR Lab has managed to achieve so far. In a tweet sent by the project lead, we got a sneak preview of Neon and to be honest, it looks real. According to the tweet, the new avatar can in fact create new expressions, new movements, and even engage in new dialog.
Some videos showing the avatars were also posted on Reddit, and even though they have already been taken down, they look lifelike just as we suspected. Forget about computer-generated graphics. These avatars from STAR Lab look like real people.
But there is obviously one big question. How are these digital humans able to replicate human behavior? We now know that they can actually talk just like humans. STAR Labs has been saying over and over again that the goal is to make Neon avatars indistinguishable from humans.
In fact, the company has noted that some of its creations have time and again been mistaken for real humans. That’s a huge deal. Even though current technology has seen massive improvements in generating real-life graphics, it’s often possible to tell the difference between a real human and an avatar.
But Neon seems to have leaped over this and based on the videos we have seen so far, it seems the company has done a very good job. There are many in the tech world who believe that digital humans will be a huge technology breakthrough in 2020. People will start to develop relationships with these artificial humans and this is something we couldn’t even fathom a few years ago. But there’s still a long way to go.
One of the key challenges will be to manage the interaction between avatars and humans. It still feels like a weird thing right now. STAR Lab may need to convince people that in fact digital humans are the next big thing. Besides, we are not sure whether the design work is complete.
So far, the company has shared several human-like avatars and they look very promising. Few details about the project are out there but it seems like a good start from Samsung at the moment.