你的自拍很快就能從2D變成3D了。

Loom.ai是一家舊金山的科技創(chuàng)業(yè)公司，該公司致力于使虛擬通訊更加個(gè)性化。該平臺(tái)憑借130萬(wàn)美元的種子資金于本周二正式上線了。只需要一張簡(jiǎn)單的數(shù)碼相片，loom.ai就能自動(dòng)生成一個(gè)栩栩如生的3D頭像，它可以用于短信、社交媒體、VR游戲甚至是電子商務(wù)中（類似于前一陣很是火了一陣的Bitmoji，只不過(guò)它是3D版的，而且更加傳神）。

這家人工智能創(chuàng)業(yè)公司計(jì)劃將該技術(shù)授權(quán)給第三方平臺(tái)，以將其整合到各種新的或現(xiàn)有的應(yīng)用中。

Loom.ai是由擁有多年從業(yè)經(jīng)驗(yàn)的視覺(jué)效果專家馬赫什·拉瑪薩伯拉瑪尼安和基蘭·巴特兩人創(chuàng)辦的。拉瑪薩伯拉瑪尼安曾在夢(mèng)工廠擔(dān)任電影視效主管，《怪獸史萊克》和《馬達(dá)加斯加3》等動(dòng)畫(huà)大片都是出自他的手筆。巴特曾為盧卡斯影業(yè)做過(guò)《復(fù)仇者聯(lián)盟》和《加勒比海盜》的面部動(dòng)畫(huà)設(shè)計(jì)工作。

直到現(xiàn)在，制作逼真的3D頭像都是非常昂貴的，而且基本上只能在好萊塢的工作室里完成。拉瑪薩伯拉瑪尼安和巴特想改變這種情況。

巴特表示：“我們發(fā)現(xiàn)，觀眾不滿足于僅僅坐在那里看電影——他們想要互動(dòng)。我們認(rèn)為，你應(yīng)該把用戶帶入到那種體驗(yàn)當(dāng)中。也就是說(shuō)，我們是怎樣把電影明星數(shù)字化的，就應(yīng)該以同樣的方法把普通用戶也數(shù)字化?！?

Loom.ai公司今年三月成立后，立即進(jìn)入了美國(guó)知名創(chuàng)業(yè)孵化器Y Combinator的法眼——Y Combinator一般會(huì)向處于原型產(chǎn)品階段的創(chuàng)業(yè)公司提供創(chuàng)業(yè)指導(dǎo)和2萬(wàn)美元的資金，以換取對(duì)方1.5%的股權(quán)。

Loom.ai能夠通過(guò)機(jī)器學(xué)習(xí)技術(shù)捕捉面部細(xì)節(jié)。它的軟件收集的關(guān)于面部運(yùn)動(dòng)的數(shù)據(jù)越多，就越擅長(zhǎng)推測(cè)人的其它面部表情。

拉瑪薩伯拉瑪尼安表示：“就算我們不知道所有細(xì)節(jié)，我們也能推測(cè)出關(guān)于面部運(yùn)動(dòng)規(guī)律的很多其他信息。”

這家創(chuàng)業(yè)公司背后的投資人主要有丹華資本、Y Combinator、Presence Capital、Anorak Ventures以及GV合伙人喬·克勞斯等。（Anorak Ventures的任事股東格雷格·卡斯?fàn)栆彩荲R公司Oculus的一名種子投資人——目前Oculus已被Facebook收購(gòu)）。

Loom.ai不愿透露目前有哪些第三方平臺(tái)正在測(cè)試它的API，不過(guò)該公司表示，它的目標(biāo)是像Facebook這樣擁有大量用戶群的平臺(tái)。

拉瑪薩伯拉瑪尼安表示：“Facebook有大量用戶群，將來(lái)如果他們?cè)敢庥梦覀兊募夹g(shù)將2D照片變成3D頭像，我們還是很樂(lè)意的。”

今年10月，F(xiàn)acebook的CEO馬克·扎克伯格貼出了一段視頻。從視頻中可以看出，F(xiàn)acebook正在研究未來(lái)通過(guò)Oculus Rift設(shè)備讓人們通過(guò)3D化身在VR世界中實(shí)互相聊天。 （財(cái)富中文網(wǎng)）

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作者：Polina Marinova

譯者：樸成奎

Your selfies are about to get a whole lot more realistic.

Loom.ai, a San Francisco-based tech startup that wants to make virtual communication more personal, emerged from stealth mode Tuesday with $1.3 million in seed funding. Using basic digital photos, Loom.ai automatically generates detailed 3D avatars that can be used in text messages, social media, virtual reality games, and e-commerce (think Bitmoji, but 3D and more expressive).

The artificial intelligence startup plans to license the technology to third-party platforms that will incorporate it into new or existing applications.

Loom.ai was founded by seasoned visual effects artists Mahesh Ramasubramanian and Kiran Bhat. Ramasubramanian previously worked at DreamWorks Animation as a visual effects supervisor on movies such as Shrek and Madagascar 3. Bhat worked on facial animation at LucasFilm for movies such as The Avengers and Pirates of the Caribbean.

Until now, creating realistic 3D avatars was an expensive process done exclusively in a Hollywood studio. Ramasubramanian and Bhat want to change that.

“What we found is that the audience no longer wants to sit back and watch a movie — they want to interact,” Bhat says. “We believe that you need to bring the user into the experience, which means figuring out a way to digitize the everyday user just like we used to digitize the movie stars.”

After launching in March, Loom.ai was selected for the Y Combinator fellowship, a remote program that gives prototype-stage startups guidance and $20,000 in funding for 1.5% equity.

Loom.ai relies on machine learning to capture the subtleties of the human face. As the company’s software collects more data about facial movements, it becomes better at guessing and inferring other facial expressions as well.

“Even if we can’t see everything, we can predict a lot of other things about how the face should move,” Ramasubramanian says.

The startup is backed by investors such as Danhua Capital, Y Combinator, Presence Capital, Anorak Ventures, and GV partner Joe Kraus. (Greg Castle, managing partner at Anorak Ventures, was also a seed investor in Oculus, the virtual-reality company now owned by Facebook.)

Loom.ai would not disclose the third-party platforms currently testing its API, but said it’s aiming for platforms like Facebook with a massive user base.

“Facebook has a ton of users, and we would love it if they would use our technology to turn a 2D photograph into a 3D avatar in the future,” Ramasubramanian says.

In October, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg released a video showing how the future of work would involve 3D avatars talking to each other through the Oculus Rift device.