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Innovative Method for Generating Realistic Human Interactions

New technology allows realistic two-person motions from simple text descriptions.

― 6 min read


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In recent years, creating realistic human Motions through technology has made great strides. However, most approaches focus on how one person moves alone, without considering how two people interact with each other. To address this gap, a new method has been developed that allows anyone to create high-quality movements for two individuals, using just descriptions in simple text.

The key to this method is a new dataset called InterHuman, which contains a vast amount of data featuring human interactions. This dataset includes millions of motion frames and descriptions in natural language, helping machines learn how people move together during various activities.

Overview of InterGen

The method introduced here, called InterGen, uses a special type of Algorithm known as a diffusion model to generate motions. This approach allows for simple adjustments, meaning anyone-even those with little to no technical knowledge-can create realistic interactions between two people.

One major advancement is the creation of two systems that work in tandem, allowing the model to understand and replicate the complexities of human interactions. These systems share information and adjust as they work, which enhances the quality of the generated motions.

The Importance of Motion Data

The foundation of InterGen is the InterHuman dataset. This dataset is particularly valuable because it brings together various types of motions that people perform together, from everyday actions like hugging and handshakes to more structured activities like dancing or martial arts.

Having such a large and diverse dataset is crucial because it helps ensure that the model can generate motions that are not only realistic but also varied. By capturing and labeling this motion data using multiple cameras, the team was able to accurately record the way people move in different scenarios. Each motion is paired with detailed descriptions, allowing the system to learn how to generate movements based on text prompts.

How Motion Generation Works

At the core of the motion generation process is the idea of using a diffusion model. This model is trained to understand how two people interact by processing the motions of both individuals simultaneously. The model incorporates a cooperative mechanism where two separate systems help each other generate motions, enhancing their abilities in the process.

This symbiotic relationship allows the models to maintain the integrity of interactions between the two people. For example, when one person moves, the other person's movements are adjusted to fit the context of the interaction, which helps avoid issues where one person seems to act independently of the other.

The Value of Non-Canonical Representation

A major challenge in generating motions is ensuring that the movements of the two individuals are spatially related to each other. Traditional models often have trouble maintaining these relationships over time. To overcome this, InterGen uses a unique representation of motion that focuses on the global spatial positions of both individuals, rather than relying on their movements relative to a single reference point.

By doing this, the model can accurately represent how the two individuals relate to one another in space, which is essential for creating believable interactions. This approach mitigates problems like drift, where the positions of individuals would gradually become inaccurate, leading to unnatural movements.

Regularization for Realism

In addition to the advanced motion representation, InterGen incorporates special techniques, known as regularization losses, to further refine the generated motions. These techniques measure and adjust the spatial relationships between the two individuals, ensuring that their movements align with real-world expectations.

For instance, one regularization technique checks the distance between the joints of both people, ensuring they do not overlap or intersect unnaturally. Another technique considers how the two individuals are oriented towards each other, affecting their movements accordingly.

By applying these constraints during training, the model learns to generate motions that not only look good but also feel natural in context.

Evaluation of InterGen

To understand how well InterGen performs, various tests and comparisons were conducted with existing methods. The results showed that InterGen outperformed previous models in several important areas, including how accurately the generated motions matched the provided text prompts and how similar the generated motions were to actual recorded movements.

These Evaluations provide strong evidence that InterGen can produce high-quality, diverse interaction motions that are suitable for many applications, including virtual reality (VR) and gaming, where realistic human interactions are crucial.

Applications of InterGen

The potential uses for InterGen are vast. Anyone creating games, films, or virtual experiences can benefit from the ability to generate complex interactions between characters. It offers a straightforward way to make movements realistic without requiring extensive manual animations.

Some potential applications include:

1. Video Games

Game developers can use InterGen to create more lifelike interactions between characters. Instead of relying solely on pre-recorded animations, which can often feel stiff or repetitive, developers can generate unique motion sequences based on player actions or in-game scenarios.

2. Virtual Reality

In virtual reality, creating believable human interactions is essential for immersion. InterGen can provide dynamic character responses based on user input, allowing for more interactive storytelling and experiences.

3. Film Production

Filmmakers can utilize this technology to generate background movements for crowd scenes or even specific interactions between characters. This can save time and resources in the animation process.

4. Training Simulations

InterGen could also be applied in training simulations where understanding human interaction is important. For instance, training healthcare professionals in patient interaction or teaching negotiation techniques could benefit from realistic motion generation.

Limitations and Future Directions

While InterGen represents a significant advancement in motion generation, it is not without its limitations. Currently, the model focuses on interactions involving only two people, which may restrict its application in scenarios involving larger groups. There is room for improvement in creating models capable of simulating group dynamics, which would be useful for applications like sports simulations or social gatherings.

Another limitation is the model's reliance on predefined text prompts. While this makes it user-friendly, it may limit creativity, especially if prompts are vague. Future advancements could involve enhancing the system's ability to adapt to user feedback for more tailored motion generation.

InterGen also has a maximum length for generated motion sequences, which can restrict the types of interactions it can model, particularly for complex scenarios. Overcoming this limitation may involve developing systems that rely on multiple shorter sequences or transitional movements to create longer, coherent animations.

Finally, issues like jittering artifacts and penetration during interactions may still occur. Although these challenges are common in motion generation, improvements can be made by refining the model and incorporating physics simulations to enhance realism.

Conclusion

InterGen showcases a promising approach to generating realistic two-person interactions using simple text inputs. By leveraging a large and diverse dataset and advanced modeling techniques, it offers a way for users to create dynamic and engaging human movements efficiently.

With ongoing development and refinement, InterGen has the potential to transform various industries by improving how virtual characters interact, leading to more immersive experiences in gaming, film, and beyond. The progress made in this area of research sets a foundation for a brighter future in human-computer interaction.

Original Source

Title: InterGen: Diffusion-based Multi-human Motion Generation under Complex Interactions

Abstract: We have recently seen tremendous progress in diffusion advances for generating realistic human motions. Yet, they largely disregard the multi-human interactions. In this paper, we present InterGen, an effective diffusion-based approach that incorporates human-to-human interactions into the motion diffusion process, which enables layman users to customize high-quality two-person interaction motions, with only text guidance. We first contribute a multimodal dataset, named InterHuman. It consists of about 107M frames for diverse two-person interactions, with accurate skeletal motions and 23,337 natural language descriptions. For the algorithm side, we carefully tailor the motion diffusion model to our two-person interaction setting. To handle the symmetry of human identities during interactions, we propose two cooperative transformer-based denoisers that explicitly share weights, with a mutual attention mechanism to further connect the two denoising processes. Then, we propose a novel representation for motion input in our interaction diffusion model, which explicitly formulates the global relations between the two performers in the world frame. We further introduce two novel regularization terms to encode spatial relations, equipped with a corresponding damping scheme during the training of our interaction diffusion model. Extensive experiments validate the effectiveness and generalizability of InterGen. Notably, it can generate more diverse and compelling two-person motions than previous methods and enables various downstream applications for human interactions.

Authors: Han Liang, Wenqian Zhang, Wenxuan Li, Jingyi Yu, Lan Xu

Last Update: 2024-03-27 00:00:00

Language: English

Source URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.05684

Source PDF: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2304.05684

Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

Changes: This summary was created with assistance from AI and may have inaccuracies. For accurate information, please refer to the original source documents linked here.

Thank you to arxiv for use of its open access interoperability.

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