Title: The Technological Legacy of Virtual Human Simulation

Abstract: Computer aided simulation of the appearance and function of the human body has found exciting applications in entertainment, biomechanics and medicine. What is more, recreating realistic humanlike behavior with a synthetic face or body model constitutes one of the most challenging benchmarks for physics-based simulation algorithms, due to the complexity and resolution of the utilized models. As a result, the quest for visual realism and improved performance in virtual character simulation has often inspired novel algorithms with broader impact in the field of physics-based simulation. Using realistic character animation as the underlying motivation, I will describe a host of new techniques that helped bring physics-based face and body models to life, and outline promising emerging applications enabled by these methods.