**Virtual humans, how far have you come? Expansion in all directions including marketing, education, and distribution**
*Selected as a virtual human advertising model for SKT, LG, Shinhan Bank, etc.*
The era of a full-fledged virtual human has arrived. In August 2020, the virtual human Rosie, who appeared in Shinhan Life’s advertisement, was followed by a rush of virtual human advertising models by large companies such as LG and Lotte Home Shopping. Now, it has developed to the extent that it can play roles on behalf of real people in various fields such as lecturers, announcers, and bankers. It is evaluated that the field of virtual human activity is expanding into marketing, education, and distribution, and it is now becoming a daily routine.
A virtual human is a virtual character created in the form of a human. It is also called a digital human because it is implemented only in software without a tangible substance. Kyoko Date, a virtual idol who debuted in Japan in 1996, is the first person in the world to wake up. In Korea, the cyber singer ‘Adam’ started in 1998.
SK Telecom selected as the main advertising model for virtual human Nasua
On September 26, SK Telecom selected a virtual human with its own AI voice technology as the main advertising model for the company’s representative AI service ‘A.’. This is the first time that a virtual human has been adopted as an advertisement model for SKT since SKT has shown 1,300 TV advertisements for about 16 years from the 3G communication era when advertising competition was fierce to the present, and it is the first case in a domestic mobile communication company. Considering that the advertisements of mobile carriers have reflected the most popular trend of the time, SKT’s use of the virtual human advertisement model shows the changing state of the times. The name of the virtual human selected as SKT’s main advertising model is ‘SUA’. It is Korea’s first real-time interactive AI-type virtual human produced by Onmind, a 3D virtual human development company, with its own technology. A method was applied to shorten the working time by extracting facial movement information based on Nasua’s body model (real person) shooting edit, matching it to Nasua’s face, and quickly synthesizing the edited version. Up to now, most of the advertisements featuring virtual humans have been made with voiceover dubbing, but Nasua’s voice is an artificial intelligence (AI) voice created by its own technology.
The expansive virtual human realm _
Virtual human marketing, which started two years ago, has been actively used in the advertising industry. LG Electronics is at the forefront of using virtual humans. In January of last year, LG Electronics made a surprise appearance of a virtual human, Keem Reah, at CES 2021, the world’s largest electronics and IT exhibition. ‘Rae’ means ‘a child from the future’, and it is a character made with computer graphics and voiced with artificial intelligence (AI) technology. Raa is a singer-songwriter and influencer who is active on Instagram. She has been learning 3D images through deep learning technology until recently, and appeared as a speaker at CES 2021, showing a three-dimensional and lively appearance.
Lotte Home Shopping put the self-developed virtual human ‘Lucy’ to the fore. Lucy appeared not only as a promotional model for the Lotte Home Shopping event, but also as a host at Ssangyong Motor’s new car presentation in July. It also signed an exclusive artist contract with GreenBam Media, a broadcast content producer. Lotte Home Shopping plans to make her debut as a live commerce host within this year by upgrading Lucy to a level where two-way communication is possible. Musinsa, an online fashion platform, became a hot topic by introducing a virtual human ‘Mu-in’, modeled after the real model Yoo Ah-in.
The expansion of the realm of virtual humans is dazzling. The first virtual human instructor in Korea also appeared. ‘Baek Hana’, a 32-year-old virtual human brand designer, directly communicates with and teaches students on the online class platform ‘Class 101’. It has become possible not only to read pre-entered lecture contents, but also to communicate and teach online in real time with students.
Star instructor Kim Mi-kyung also created her own virtual human ‘Kim Mi-kyung AI’ and put it into the lecture. On YouTube, there is a video of Kim Mi-kyung AI’s natural lecture. Live broadcast appearances are also possible. Jane, a member of the virtual human girl group Eternity, appeared on YTN’s ‘News Rider’ live broadcast in August, setting the record for her first virtual human live appearance. Her Jane made headlines for her real-life appearance, as well as her natural rapport with her host. Virtual humans who are put into real job sites are also emerging. In the high-speed train SRT, an in-house virtual human announcer announcing the start of the innovation meeting is in charge, and the AI â??â??financial secretary of KB Kookmin Bank, launched this year, is made in the form of a virtual human that can provide face-to-face services. It is possible to have daily conversations on topics such as bank information, information on documents, introduction and recommendation of financial products, information on branches and nearby facilities, and weather and hobbies.
Virtual human market size to reach 14 trillion won by 2025
According to Bloomberg, the virtual human market is expected to reach about 14 trillion won by 2025. There is also an analysis that ‘the best value for money’ from the point of view of a company in that there is no controversy about privacy, it is possible to work 24 hours a day, and it does not age. On the other hand, in the case of a real person or a dead person, there is a possibility that the issue of infringement of personal rights and portrait rights may be raised. There is also a concern that artificially manipulated virtual humans such as deepfakes, which are evolving recently, may emerge. However, the virtual human market is already evolving rapidly without going against the times. An official from AI startup ‘Lion Rocket’ said, “With the development of AI, technologies such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are also supported, making the foundation for virtual humans to be active.” “Virtual humans and humans This exchange is no longer a distant future.â?
http://weekly.hankooki.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=7074348