Toppan teams with digital startup to create AI human avatar dataset
A pair of vendors say they are going to create a dataset of rights-free, photo-realistic AI-generated human figures that are not tied to actual people.
The companies are 121-year-old printing and communications firm Toppan and digital startup 3dig, which reportedly will create a related content-generation platform for the project in 2022.
They would be selling primarily to businesses that need to put human faces in their marcomm materials, including internal marcomm departments and marketing and advertising firms. The pair, perhaps optimistically, hope to attract some government business, too.
Toppan and 3dig plan to build the AI dataset from high-resolution biometric scans at Toppan’s Virtual Human Lab. Scans will be done on University of Southern California’s Light Stage.
Collected data will train 3dig’s so-called anma AI systems, which will create virtual humans.
The goal is to free businesses of rights-entangled images that can create complex and sometimes expensive headaches when human models who must be compensated.
Digital fictional human faces have been used, of course, but the quality has been lacking, which distracts from a company’s message. Toppan wants, essentially, deepfake capabilities that leap the uncanny valley.
Japan-based Toppan sees this move as the start of digital model agency business model.
The company began talking up this project a year ago, before it paired with 3dig.
Also, a year ago, Toppan bought Taiwan fintech firm iDGate.
As of this fall, its iDGate face biometric verification algorithm ranked in the global top 20 in terms of quality as judged by the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s esteemed face recognition vendor tests.
About Toppan
Established in Tokyo in 1900, Toppan is a leading and diversified global provider committed to delivering sustainable, integrated solutions in fields including printing, communications, security, packaging, décor materials, electronics, and digital transformation. Toppan’s global team of more than 50,000 employees offers optimal solutions enabled by industry-leading expertise and technologies to address the diverse challenges of every business sector and society and contribute to the achievement of shared sustainability goals.
For more information, visit www.toppan.com/en/ or follow Toppan on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/toppan/.
About Toppan iDGate
Toppan iDGate, acquired by Toppan in 2020, was co-founded by a group of tech entrepreneurs with a vision for improving what they saw as a sore spot in the market for identity verification solutions. In a world where we tend to oppose security to user friendliness, Toppan iDGate is striving to offer highly secure but also highly convenient authentication solutions, for digital transformation and online banking services. With our combined years of experience developing data security for the finance industry and proven track-record raising successful businesses, the company understands the fine balance between what banks need and what their customers want.
For more identity solution, visit https://www.toppanidgate.com/solutions/
About 3dig
3dig aims to build a platform for the purpose of automatic generation of content, based on 3D CG research and production know-how.