Welcome to DIVAs

Gestural Control of DIgital Ventriloquized Actors

We are creating DIgital Ventriloquized Actors (DIVAs). DIVAs use hand gestures to synthesize audiovisual speech and song by means of an intermediate conversion of hand gestures to articulator (e.g., tongue, jaw, lip, vocal chords) parameters of a three-dimensional vocal tract model.

DIVAs will be used in three composed stage works of increasing complexity to be performed in Canada and internationally, starting with one performer initially and culminating in three performers simultaneously using their natural voices as well as the hand-based synthesizer.

Training performances will be used to study the processes associated with skill acquisition, the coordination of multiple "voices" within and among performers, and the intelligibility and realism of this new form of audio/visual speech production.

---

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts which last year invested $17.4 million in the arts in British Columbia, and $11.8 million in media arts throughout Canada.

Nous remercions de son soutien le Conseil des Arts du Canada, qui a investi 17,4 millions de dollars l'an dernier dans les arts en Colombie-Britannique et 11,8 millions de dollars dans les arts médiatiques à travers le Canada.

We acknowledge the support of the Natural Science and Engineering Council of Canada .
Nous remercions de son soutien le Conseil des recherches en sciences naturelles et en génie du Canada.