A Platform for Interactive AI Character Experiences

Aug 10, 2025·
Dr. Rafael Wampfler
Dr. Rafael Wampfler
,
C. Yang
,
D. Elste
,
N. Kovačević
,
P. Witzig
,
M. Gross
Abstract
We present a comprehensive platform for creating, deploying, and operating interactive AI character experiences. The platform integrates a full pipeline from perception to animation: real-time speech recognition, knowledge-grounded dialogue management with personality-consistent response generation, multimodal dialog act classification, and expressive data-driven facial animation with gesture synthesis. The system is designed for scalable deployment across scientific, medical, and public-facing contexts, and is demonstrated through Digital Einstein — an embodied conversational agent that has reached thousands of visitors globally at scientific conferences, technology summits, and public events. We describe the architectural choices, engineering tradeoffs, and lessons learned from sustained real-world operation.
Type
Publication
In Proceedings of the SIGGRAPH Conference Papers ‘25, Vancouver, Canada
publications
Embodied Conversational Agents Interactive AI Digital Humans Digital Einstein Real-Time Systems Multimodal AI
Dr. Rafael Wampfler
Authors
Dr. Rafael Wampfler
Senior Researcher & Lecturer

I am a Senior Researcher & Lecturer at the Computer Graphics Laboratory of ETH Zurich, and a Research Consultant at Disney Research. I am leading the Digital Character AI projects at CGL. My research interests include conversational digital characters, affective computing, human-computer interaction, and applied machine learning.

My vision is to create intelligent digital humans that can naturally communicate, understand, and support people across domains such as education and mental health. My research focuses on multimodal artificial intelligence for interactive digital humans, developing models that combine large language models, affective computing, and data-driven animation to create embodied conversational agents endowed with autonomous agency, consistent values, and beliefs.

My work bridges machine learning, human–computer interaction, and computer graphics to enable AI systems such as Digital Einstein and interactive patient avatars for psychotherapy training and health education.