At the University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT), leaders in the artificial intelligence, graphics, virtual reality and narrative communities are working to advance 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.
ICT Accomplishments:
- 2,000 Peer-Reviewed Publications with 100,000+ Citations.
- 140+ Honors and Awards Highlighting Faculty and Staff.
- 49 Hollywood Movies/Sets use ICT Technologies.
- 278 Intellectual Property Disclosures.
- 29 Patents.
- 3 Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) Fellows.
- 2 Academy Awards (Science & Technology).