The e–meeting platform, Zoom recently incorporated a fun feature to its “official” virtual meeting environment by adding human avatars.
This would enable users to appear in meetings as the 3D cartoon version of themselves.
According to Zoom, the App now has various personalization types from which users can display their virtual selves. The fascinating feature is that the avatars mimic head movements and facial expressions with the aid of a camera; the avatar’s mirror allows users to appear dynamically without capturing them on video.
Zoom added that the animation provides “a more engaging alternative to static profile pictures and injects more fun and energy into meetings.” This feature is available to all users globally.
Users who may be uncomfortable sharing videos of themselves can still express body language and facial gestures using the zoom avatar feature since their real faces will not be seen.
Zoom has assured users that the company will not collect facial information, and the feature does not use facial recognition. Although the avatar feature can detect whether the face is present or not, it does not recognize or distinguish between individual faces.
The avatar feature can be enabled or disabled by either members or admin (host) whenever the need arises.
Below are the device specifications to run the virtual avatar.
Windows and MacOs
| Requirements | Windows | MacOs |
| Desktop Zoom version | 5.10.0 or higher | 5.10.0 or higher |
| System requirement | Windows 7 or higher (64 bits) | MacOs 10.13 or later |
| Supported processors (Intel) | 4th generation or higher | 4th generation or higher |
| Xeon with 4 cores or higher | ||
| Supported processors (AMD) | Ryzen 3, 5, 7, 9 processor 6 cores or higher 3.0 GHz base frequency or higher 8 cores | Ryzen 3, 5, 7, 9 processor 8 cores or higher Apple M1 or higher |
| Graphics card | Direct3D 11 supported | (Not required) |
Desktop zoom version 5.13.3 or higher is required to run a custom human avatar on Windows and MacOs.
Android
| Desktop Zoom version | System requirement | Supported processors (AMD) | GPU (Qualcomm Adreno) | GPU (Mali) |
| 5.11.0 or higher | 8.0 or higher | arm64 processor (8 cores or higher) 3GB or higher | 540(Snapdragon SDM835) or higher than Snapdragon SDM710 | G series with version G72 or higher CPU must be higher than Exynos 9810 or 990, Kirin 980 or Dimensity 600 |
The minimum version of iPhone 8 and iPad 2017 with iOS 11.0 or higher is required to run the zoom avatar feature. For now, supported phones include Google, One plus, Oppo, Redmi, Samsung, Vivo, Xiaomi and Huawei.
In addition to the cartoon feature, zoom announced that a threaded messaging feature and emoji reaction would soon be added to enable hosts to know which message conference members are responding to.
A Question and answer session will also be available in the App later this month but will only be accessible to premium subscribers only. However, the limitation with the cartoon feature is that it does not support video filter, even though virtual backgrounds can be used simultaneously. As it stands, what do you think zoom can add to these?
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Photo By Zoom
