Who We are

The Virtual Human Toolkit is developed at the University of Southern California Institute for Creative technologies, located in Los Angeles.

The University of Southern California (USC) is one of the world’s leading private research universities. With a strong tradition of integrating liberal and professional education, USC fosters a vibrant culture of public service and encourages students to cross academic as well as geographic boundaries in their pursuit of knowledge.

At the USC Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT) leaders in artificial intelligence, graphics, virtual reality and narrative advance low-cost immersive techniques and technologies to solve problems facing service members, students and society.

Established in 1999, ICT is a DoD-sponsored University Affiliated Research Center (UARC) working in collaboration with the U.S. Army Research Laboratory. UARCs are aligned with prestigious institutions conducting research at the forefront of science and innovation.

ICT brings film and game industry artists together with computer and social scientists to study and develop immersive media for military training, health therapies, education and more.

Research projects explore and expand how people engage with computers, through virtual characters, video games and simulated scenarios. ICT is a recognized leader in the development of virtual humans who look, think and behave like real people.

ICT prototypes provide engaging experiences to improve skills in decision-making, cultural awareness, leadership and coping, to name a few. They allow veterans to go online and speak anonymously to an interactive virtual coach who can remotely recognize signs of depression, PTSD and suicide risk. They provide training in how to address cases of performance or personal issues through practice with a computer-generated virtual human education system. They can simulate what goes wrong when Soldiers don’t consider the cultural sensitivities and indirect consequences of even their smallest interactions.

Being based in Los Angeles facilitates collaboration with major movie and game makers. ICT graphics innovations help create realistic computer-generated characters in Hollywood blockbusters and also enhance virtual characters for museum and military projects.

ICT’s groundbreaking research and advanced technology demonstrations are both making an impact today and paving the way for what is possible in the future.