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Faceshift is a new motion capture utility that does an impressive job of replicating facial movements with barely any noticeable delay. The technology relies on Microsoft's ever-capable Kinect camera to pull in the 3D data it needs to mirror your expressions, though Faceshift's creators have done an admirable job refining the device's face recognition capabilities. Seeing even the most slight movements replicated by an on-screen avatar brings to mind the top-notch motion capture we've seen in the video game industry in recent years, led most notably by LA Noire.
And gaming is an area where Faceshift could present new opportunities to developers. An SDK targeted at animators and game creators has been released, though it wouldn't surprise us to see this technology used in other unexpected ways. But Faceshift already faces competition from major industry players including Sony, which has brought similar facial capture functionality to EverQuest 2 (and soon other titles) through a feature it's calling SOEmote.
