London: Deceased family members in future could be brought back to life, interacted with and kept alive forever in a virtual reality accurately created from their movements and social media history , a UK-based academic has claimed.
Computers will be advanced enough in around 50 years that they can create “synthetic digital life“ based upon people's past movements, Simon McKeown, a reader in Animation and Post Production at Teesside University in Middlesborough, has said.
These avatars would be created using a process called photogrammetry, which can accurately reconstruct a virtual 3D shape of a human being from existing photographs and videos.
Computer voice synthesis will take into account local and regional accents to deliver an accurate representation of what they sounded like.
Dubbing the idea as `Preserved Memories', McKeown said, “In the future one will never have to experience the loss of a loved one. One will be able to add to your family tree and select new family members, including famous faces and legends, all of whom will already know about you.“
“Using emotion-sensitive human-computer interaction our artificially intelligent participants continue to acquire ongoing knowledge long after their death--they evolve digitally and do not die,“he said.
Showcasing `Preserved Memories' at an exhibition in Prague, McKeown said this life form will be up to date and informed of “one's daily activities through GPS, Wifi, health and fitness tracking, consumer records and much more.“
McKeown said our prime data feeds meant digital participants instantly know what we have done and can sense our physical mood and excitement.
