Virtual Humans provides a much-needed definition of what constitutes a âvirtual humanâ and places virtual humans within the wider context of Artificial Intelligence development. It explores the technical approaches to creating a virtual human as well as emergent issues such as embodiment identity agency and digital immortality and the resulting ethical challenges. The book presents an overview of current research and practice in this area and outlines the major challenges faced by todayâs developers and researchers. The book examines the possibility for using virtual humans in a variety of roles from personal assistants to teaching coaching and knowledge management and the book situates these discussions around familiar applications (e. g. Siri Cortana Alexa) and the portrayal of virtual humans within Science Fiction. Features Presents a comprehensive overview of this rapidly developing field Provides an array of relevant real-life examples from expert practitioners and researchers from around the globe in how to create the avatar body mind senses and ability to communicate Intends to be broad in scope yet practical in approach so that it can serve the needs of several different audiences including researchers teachers developers and anyone with an interest in where these technologies might take us Covers a wide variety of issues which have been neglected in other research texts; for example definitions and taxonomies the ethical challenges of virtual humans and issues around digital immortality Includes numerous examples and extensive references . Language: English