IBM ViaVoice Toolkit for Animation

Lip synchronization ("lip sync") is the process of synchronizing a character's mouth movements with his speech. Currently, lip sync for animation is often done manually, and, when it is done automatically, it cannot be done in real time and the results are not accurate. Because ViaVoice provides an accurate acoustic model, the lip sync will also be accurate. Because ViaVoice operates in "near real time," the lip sync can be done in near real time, opening many opportunities for real-time animation.

IBM ViaVoice Toolkit for Animation provides data files and a modified speech recognition engine that allows the ViaVoice dictation product to send phonetic and audio information to a client process to be used for synchronizing character mouth movement with the corresponding speech. It includes the header files neccesary for building a client as well as sample code and images for creating real-time or offline lip sync animations.

This technology opens the possibility for live animation of speaking characters and provides simple and accurate lip sync for scripted animation, bringing character dialog animation within reach of nonprofessionals.

The toolkit includes sample code that generates real-time Macromedia Flash animations. Software developers can use this example to help them integrate the technology into their animation systems. With IBM ViaVoice for Windows R10 and this toolkit, developers have everything necessary for adding automatic lip sync capability to their animation systems.

Get IBM ViaVoice Toolkit for Animation and take it for a spin to see how useful it can be for you!