Are there any software tools or APIs that will allow you to create a 3D talking head that will generate correct lip movements when given a text stream?

Are there any software tools or APIs that will allow you to create a 3D talking head that will generate correct lip movements when given a text stream?

I don’t have a direct answer for you; I don’t know of the perfect solution. I do have some resources which may be of help. Generally in robotics this is referred to as embodiment, even for software robots (softbots). Talking heads may be virtual or physical, as in animatronic or robotic heads. The new virtual mannequins are a bit of a combination of the two, using rear projection.

Haptek.com was a good general purpose, desktop avatar system for experimental AI, but is more or less out of business. Oddcast SitePal seems to be the current industry standard, and offers a number of API packages; see both Oddcast – Developers and SitePal API. Cantoche LivingActor.com was used to animate the well known viral video, “AI vs. AI. Two chatbots talking to each other”.

Robert Medeksza of Zabaware was developing a new 3D Character Engine at sourceforge.net, circa 2010. The well known German AI lab DFKI offers a realtime character animation engine, EMBR.

See also my previous Quora answer on using the SecondLife virtual world as a testbed for prototyping: I’d like to build a talking animatronic Beethoven bust for my music room, and don’t even know where to begin, how to get started?

Avatar Systems:
· Avatar Systems | Meta-Guide.com
· Best Haptek Videos | Meta-Guide.com
· Best Talking Avatar Videos | Meta-Guide.com
· PIAVCA (Platform Independent API for Virtual Characters and Avatars) | Meta-Guide.com

Talking Heads:
· 100 Best Animatronic Head Videos | Meta-Guide.com
· 100 Best Robot Head Videos | Meta-Guide.com
· Talking Heads (Draft) | Meta-Guide.com

Virtual Mannequins:
· 100 Best Virtual Mannequin Videos | Meta-Guide.com