About Us
aPeerance helps companies put life into animated characters. With groundbreaking facial animation technology, aPeerance provides the tools to:
- Quickly build lifelike heads
- Animate real-time talking faces
- Deploy online talking heads
At the core of aPeerance products is a unique and scalable technology, FaceScript™, a product of over 15 years of research and development. FaceScript sets the standard for efficiently describing a fully functioning animated face. The applications for FaceScript span across many industries such as gaming software, movie production, online entertainment, toys, online and wireless communication, customer relations management, law enforcement, and medical.
Shahram
Dastmalchi, CEO and President
Mr. Dastmalchi is an
expert in visual information processing and computer vision. He has managed
research teams at the University of California San Francisco for four
years and worked in software consulting. He has taken a strong interest
in virtual characters since 1997, his second year in graduate school,
and is the company's visionary. Shahram is a Ph.D. candidate in Vision
Science at UC Berkeley.
Steve
DiPaola, Chief Technology Officer
Mr. DiPaola is a software
industry veteran. He has held management positions with computer games
leader Electronic Arts, founded and managed the innovation arm of Saatchi
& Saatchi, and worked with several software companies where he led the
design and development efforts. He is a world-renowned expert in facial
animation and has been developing cutting edge technology since the early
1980's. Steve is the mastermind behind the face personalization tool used
in "The SIMS". Steve teaches courses at Stanford University on interactive
design and facial animation.
Peter
deVroede, Vice President of Engineering
Mr. deVroede has over 20 years of experience in computer graphics, having
worked on some of the first 3D systems for the PC platform. He became
involved in interactive entertainment software over 10 years ago, first
developing CD ROM titles for Macintosh and PC, then going on to develop
titles for game consoles, including "Soviet Strike," "Nuclear Strike,"
"Jane's Advanced Tactical Fighters," "Road Rash" and "Road Rash 3D." He
has also worked in feature films including "Lawnmower Man," "Pocahontas"
and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." His career has included product development
for Adobe, Macromedia, Electronic Arts and Disney, and he is credited
in over $700 Million in software product. Peter has a A.B. in Physics
from the University of California at Berkeley and an MBA from the Haas
School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley.
Our deep domain expertise in interactive multimedia and animation comes from over 30 years of experience working with companies such as Electronic Arts, Apple, Saatchi & Saatchi Interactive, Communities.com and Lucas Film.
In mid 1990's, Steve DiPaola and Dave Collins (a consultant with Apeerance), lead design and development of OnLive's Internet-based Virtual World software called Traveler™. Traveler™ allows groups of people to socialize with each other by navigating through virtual 3D spaces, meeting others and talking with their own voices through emotive, lip-synching 3D head avatars. Traveler™ was considered the leading 3D virtual software of its time using innovative features such as multi-user directional voice.
Steve DiPaola, as an independent contractor, was asked by Maxis (an EA subsidiary) to create an easy-to-use head creation tool, which became FaceLift™ for their simulation game called "The Sims". FaceLift™ is a freely downloadable web tool, which allows users to "find" or breed a face or family of related faces that appeal to them for use in the game. A large web based community is currently using this system to make thousands of faces. In addition, these users have the ability to publish and trade faces on the web and even breed their creations with those of other users.
Steve DiPaola worked for the advertising giant, Saatchi and Saatchi, where he founded and co-ran its independent innovation arm, Darwin Digital, in San Francisco. As Creative Director, he led the development of the HP Palmtop Tour, which was the first commercial site to include interactive characters. Steve DiPaola has been involved with the cutting edge of the interactive fields of 3D animation and Web-based design since 1984, when he was a senior member of the Computer Animation Research Group at the New York Institute of Technology. At NYIT he conducted research and development in 3D character and facial animation, and he also produced animation for film, television, and fine art projects.