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Speech Graphics Ltd is a spinout company from the University of Edinburgh, building on research into the animation of talking heads during 2006-2011. Speech Graphics' technology is the first high fidelity lip-sync solution driven by audio. Speech Graphics market a multi-lingual, scalable solution to audio-driven animation that uses acoustic analysis and muscle dynamics to drive the faces of computer game characters accurately matching the words and emotion in the audio. The industry-leading technology developed by Speech Graphics has been used to animate characters in computer games developed by Supermassive games in 2012 and in music videos for artists such as Kanye West in 2013.
This impact case study provides evidence of economic impacts of our research because:
i) a spin-out company, Speech Graphics Ltd, has been created, established its viability, and gained international recognition;
ii) the computer games industry and the music video industry have adopted a new technology founded on University of Edinburgh research into a novel technique to synthesize lip motion trajectories using Trajectory Hidden Markov Models; and
iii) this led to the improvement of the process of cost-effective creation of computer games which can be sold worldwide because their dialogue can be more easily specialised into different human languages with rapid creation of high-quality facial animation replacing a combination of motion capture and manual animation.
Wilkinson has developed, evaluated and applied techniques, standards and datasets for facial depiction and identification of the dead. The impacts include:
UCL's pioneering use of 3D body surface scanning and national anthropometric surveys has had impact in the fashion industry and healthcare. In 2008, a UCL spinout, Sizemic, was founded to sell clothing size charts and fit mannequins based on the UK survey data, helping manufacturers and retailers improve the fit of their clothing, and reduce their product development times and costs. Sizemic now has 10 employees and a turnover of £1m. The research also led to other national sizing surveys, including in Germany (2008/9), Thailand (2009/10) and Mexico (2010), with results used for product development. In 2009, UCL built a prototype 3D-healthcare system for GPs and established a company, ShapeDynamics, to support the platform. The software is being tested at a private healthcare practice in London. Another UCL spinout, Bodymetrics, has commercialised body scanners for use as a clothes-fitting aid in stores.
Stroke and other forms of brain injury often result in debilitating communication impairments. For example, patients with acquired apraxia of speech (AOS) experience difficulties that affect their capacity to verbally express thoughts and needs. Such individuals have benefitted from the development of a novel computerised treatment — "Sheffield Word" (SWORD). Patients who took part in clinical trials showed improvements in aspects of speech that were impaired after stroke. SWORD is now used by healthcare teams worldwide, providing benefits to a large patient population. The SWORD computerised treatment is convenient to use at home, fosters users' autonomy, and delivers higher treatment doses than possible through traditional clinical sessions. Clinicians who treat AOS have also benefitted through education, training and access to online materials about SWORD which were provided by the research team.
Research in robust speech enhancement and audio-visual processing has led to impact on a range of different fronts:
(i) Collaboration with CSR, a leading $1 billion consumer electronics company, has shaped its R&D research agenda in speech enhancement, has inspired ideas for new product improvements, and has helped establish Belfast as an audio research centre of excellence within the company.
(ii) Our technology has changed the strategic R&D direction of a company delivering healthcare monitoring systems, with potential for multi-million pound savings in NHS budgets.
(iii) Audio-visual speech processing research has led to a proof-of-concept biometric system, Liopa: a novel, robust and convenient person authentication and verification technology exploiting lip and facial movements (www.liopa.co.uk). A start-up company is in an advanced stage of being established to commercialise this product. The product and commercialisation strategy was awarded First Prize in the 2013 NISP Connect £25K entrepreneurship competition in the Digital Media and Software category. The first commercial partner for Liopa has been engaged.
(iv) A system-on-chip implementation of a version of our speech recognition engine, which was developed through an EPSRC project, was awarded first prize in the High Technology Award in the 2010 NISP £25K Awards competition, and contributed to the founding of a spin-out company, Analytics Engines (www.analyticsengines.com).
Encounters in the Republic of Heaven is an electroacoustic composition by Trevor Wishart, based on the speech of people in north-east England. The project relied on extensive engagement with local communities, a process which benefited not only the composer but also the people who provided the material for the composition, through public talks and composition workshops. Further beneficiaries were national and international audiences of the finished work, the promoters who organised these and related events, and other users of the software tools developed by Wishart. The production of Encounters has therefore involved three distinct elements, which have each had significant impacts: