The company turning TikTok moves into avatars, without a depth sensor

YunBo’s tech can already be found in games from Tencent and Perfect World, but it’s bringing motion capture to the masses with a new mini program on WeChat and Douyin

Reading Time:3 minutes

The demo version of the XiaoK Show mini program allows you to upload a dancing video and pick a cartoon character to bust out all the same moves. (Picture: YunBo)

Published: 5:00am, 20 Mar 2020Updated: 6:00am, 20 Mar 2020

This article originally appeared on ABACUS

Imagine if you could customise your Fortnite avatar to bust out the exact same dance moves you put on TikTok with just a click of a button. For some Chinese games, this is already happening thanks to an AI company called YunBo.

Motion capture, once reserved for professionals with expensive gear, has become much more accessible in recent years. But even something like Animoji on the iPhone relies on depth sensors to get a 3D map of subjects.

Now YunBo says it has an algorithm that doesn’t need a depth sensor, and it will soon bring its new technology to the masses with a new mini program.

The mini program, called XiaoK Show, will launch on WeChat and Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, by the end of March. But I recently got to give the demo a try. The app lets users record themselves dancing and turns it into a virtual character showing off all the same moves within minutes.

Tencent’s Pokémon Go clone Let’s Hunt Monsters already incorporates YunBo’s technology. (Picture: Tencent/Bilibili)

XiaoK Show appears to be a simple utility app, but it does what it promises. To get started, you upload a short dancing clip and select the cartoon character you want to mimic your moves. You can then download the video and share it on other social media platforms.

The demo wasn’t especially polished and the number of characters and backgrounds available was limited. But the results are impressively accurate.