University of Sydney
Making Ambulances, Not Tanks: Co-Designing AI for Brain Injury Support
Here at the Motus Lab, co-founder Dr Mike Seymour and PhD student Bey Alivand are co-designing "digital humans”, AI-powered avatars that look, talk and express emotion like real people, to support young people living with acquired brain injury (ABI). More than 700,000 Australians live with ABI, two-thirds of whom acquired it before age 25, yet everyday interactions in a fast, information-heavy world can be overwhelming. A digital human puts a familiar, patient face on technology: it can slow down, simplify language and let users ask questions and talk through answers at their own pace. Crucially, the project is built on co-design with the community by partnering with Heads Together and key collaborators such as Lived Experience Consultant, Hailey Barber McKirdy, to shape the technology around real, day-to-day needs. As Mike puts it, "With AI, you can think of it like steel. You could use it to make tanks, - or we can use it to make ambulances. We're focused on making ambulances." For those using it, the impact is profound: "It's like having a cheerleader," says Hailey, "an extra voice in your life... Technology is making life more adaptable, more tailored to us and our needs." (See our blog for the video)
Our Academic Partners & Industry Enagement Partners (Public)
Key Videos, Talks and Podcasts
TEDx Talk
SIGGRAPH MEET MIKE
VIVID Talk
Our TEDx talk on digital humans.
What happens when we put a face on our devices, faces that can talk, interact and see us in real time? In this revealing talk, researcher Mike Seymour explores the impact that interactive photoreal digital faces will play in our lives.
VIVID Talk
SIGGRAPH MEET MIKE
VIVID Talk
Our sold out VIVD presentation:
Mummy, can I marry my Avatar?
Because we are hard-wired to respond to faces in uniquely positive ways, artificial realistic faces hold great promise for advancing human interaction with machines. Will it be long before we have conversational agents, such as Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri, with new believable “human” faces and expressions?
SIGGRAPH MEET MIKE
SIGGRAPH MEET MIKE
MeetMike at SIGGRAPH 2017 at the VR Village for real time Interactive CG Mike in VR.
Mike 'virtually' interviewed industry professionals over 4 days (9 hours of VR Digital interviews). This is a look behind the scenes.
Thanks to Epic Games, Wikihuman, 3Lateral, Cubic Motion, Tencent and Loom AI.
Visual Disruptors Podcast
Visual Disruptors, at Epic Games, is hosted by Mike Seymour. It unwraps one of the most exciting developments in media and entertainment for decades: virtual production.
Each episode, Mike speaks with some of the brightest minds in the business, exploring how and why virtual production will change the industry forever.
Mark Sagar's Disrupt Sydney Talk
Mark Sagar's Disrupt Sydney Talk
Academy Award winner Mark Sagar provides a hands-on experience with BabyX, a photo-realistic, intelligent infant avatar - the result of a multi-year inter-disciplinary research project.
Skip Rizzo Disrupt Sydney Talk
Mark Sagar's Disrupt Sydney Talk
Albert "Skip" Rizzo from the University of Southern California provides a deep insight into the use of state-of-the-art Virtual Reality (VR) technology in his work with trauma patients, most notably young war veterans.
