New Animation Tools Face Eager Market.

Eyematic Interfaces Inc. is poised to turn heads in the digital marketplace.

After four years of computer vision and biometrics research, the L.A. company is rolling out potentially revolutionary products that give eyes and ears to computers, as well as giving them the ability to replicate human expressions with uncanny accuracy.

While that may sound scary, the company's founders, including computer scientists Orang Dialemah and former USC professor Hartmut Neven, share a benign ambition: to revolutionize the way people communicate.

"We're building a new medium that allows a wide spectrum of authors to publish and communicate in a richer fashion," Dialemah said.

Probably the most enticing application to emerge from Eyematic research -- and the app that has attracted players in the telecom, gaming and entertainment industries -- is its computer animation software and tools. Called EyePublish, the software brings three-dimensional "avatars," or animated figures, to life.

"Avatar" originally referred to the manifestation of a Hindu deity in human, superhuman or animal form. In the digital realm, it has come to mean a 3-D Web-based character.

With EyePublish, the user's facial movements can be synchronized -- without intrusive facial markers or masks -- with the avatar. These 3-D avatars can be created quickly, animated in real time with a simple Web cam and published instantly on the Web.

Eyematic's technology requires little skill and low computer processing power, which allows for instant and easy distribution of the animated content to wireless devices and PCs.

"The technology is so innovative, and the ability for laymen to use it without much effort is really extraordinary," said Therese Myers, founder and former CEO of Quarterdeck Corp. and now CEO of Bouquet Multimedia, who also serves as an outside director on Eyematic's board.

Deep tech roots

The company's technology is unique, Myers said, because of the years of experience in biometrics that Neven brings from his research at USC, where he headed the lab for biological and computational vision.

The multimedia applications of Eyematic' s tools are vast. A business could have live customer service representatives interact with customers online, which would enhance customer relationship management. Advertisers could enliven tired banner ads by sending 3-D characters via e-mail and wireless devices. Or, an individual could create an animated image and communicate with others on peer-to-peer networks using the persona of the avatar.

Eyematic is among the first computer vision and audio analysis companies to expand the market reach of the cutting-edge technology.

The firm's largest commercial rollout occurred in Japan, but it had nothing to do with avatars. Omron Corp., a Kyoto-based maker of automation components and systems, uses Eyematic technology to deliver building security devices that "read" and recognize human faces.

Another major customer is TRW Inc., the Cleveland-based aerospace and automotive company. TRW has taken an equity stake in Eyematic and signed licensing agreements to use Eyematic technology in many of its automotive safety products, including using computer vision and sensing technology to detect if an automobile's occupant is present or determine if the occupant is out of position in a pre-crash situation so that safety restraints can be tailored to enhance protection.

Playful applications

Eyematic is exploring other market areas, such as the toy and gaming industries. The company is currently in talks with several interactive gaming companies and toy manufacturers, like Hasbro Inc., which are interested in developing Furby-like products that can recognize and interact with users.

Eyematic has been generating revenue since it was founded in 1997, thanks to licensing deals with Omron and TRW, Dialemah said, but he declined to give any specific about financials. The company has been staffing up, growing from 30 to 65 employees in the last year. Dialemah expects to hire 40 more workers by the end of this year.

Eyematic will be marketing its suite of products to the wireless industry, which "needs to bring multimedia offerings in order to fulfill the promise of 3G (a wireless platform)," Dialemah said.

"The problem the carriers are facing is that, in order to stream video, they need to put significant infrastructure in place, because current bandwidth can't handle it," he said.

But rather than wait for that costly, higher-bandwidth infrastructure to be put in place, Eyematic's solution is to provide content capable of being digitally transmitted quickly over most current network infrastructures. It's a solution that recently won over Qualcomm Inc. The San Diego-based wireless company will use Eyematic's tools in conjunction with the rollout of BREW (Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless), Qualcomm's platform for wireless applications.

"They have something with their avatar technology that a segment of the wireless market will want," said Qualcomm spokesman Jeremy James. "We think it's offering something cool and different. It helps validate what we're doing."

Specifically, Qualcomm is hoping that Eyematic's tools attract a young wireless consumer, which James calls an "untapped market."

"We think Eyematic's avatars are an example of what's going to appeal to the youth market and spark interest," he said.

Through Hasbro and Yahoo Inc., Eyematic is also introducing a camera packaged with its software.