We all have seen the terms like Software as a Service (SaaS), Technology as a Service (TaaS) etc. but there is a new term in market. Guess what? It is Digital Human as a Service.
Japanese telecom giant KDDI has teamed up with a company called Mawari (which means “surroundings” in Japanese) to create a virtual assistant you can “see” through the window of your smartphone, one who may automatically pop up to give you directions and interact if you point your phone at a real-world location.
The combination of KDDI’s 5G network, Amazon’s low-latency AWS Wavelength edge computing nodes, and Mawari’s unique codec allows “digital humans” to stream to your phone in real time rather than running natively on its chip.
A press release, shared by the company noted that “substantially lower[s] the heavy processing requirements of real-time digital humans, reducing cost, data size and battery consumption while unlocking scalability”.
The statement further said that virtual guide signs enhance the user experience and create B2C opportunities with adverts and helpful information that can be put precisely in both outdoor and indoor spaces.
In addition, starting in mid-December, a sample of Mawari’s patent-pending 3DXR content streaming infrastructure for the Metaverse will be accessible in the AWS Marketplace2. This is the first of many services that will run on Mawari’s 3DXR content streaming platform, and the partners anticipate 3rd party deployments of these capabilities in a variety of settings around the world, including sports facilities, universities, hospitals, tourist destinations, museums, and educational institutions.
There is a difference between digital humans and chatbots. Chatbots have provided a conversational interface between technology and users, but those users are often located outside of the service, such as at home on a laptop or on the phone. They aren’t in the vicinity of a product.
When we talk about digital humans, we’re talking more about the physical space. In a car dealership, a retail store, a library, or a tourist information centre, we can place the screens where these digital individuals are in.
Because they can transmit emotions, humans can also do things that a self-service site or a chat bot can’t. And the emotional connection is one of the most significant features of this new generation.