Faceshift uses Kinect to animate faces in real time

A program called faceshift, developed at the EPFL Computer Graphics and Geometry Laboratory in Lausanne, Switzerland, uses Kinect to read and reproduce facial expressions in real time, according to a video from the developers released alongside the software.

Faceshift uses a 3D camera like Kinect's to read, analyze and animate facial expressions, including head and eye movement. The faceshift team sees its applications in all aspects of video games. For example, players could use the real time software to animate their avatars in-game, like the SOEmote technology that Sony added to EverQuest 2 earlier this year. On the development side, animators can save what they record and export the animations to use in another program.

You can check out the video above to see the software in action, and even sign up for a free 30 day trial at the faceshift website. The software currently runs on Windows and Mac with a Linux release planned.