I blogged about Logitech QuickCam Effects about a year ago. Today TechCrunch is reporting about fix8, a company offering a more advanced form of this technology.

fix8 combines video, animation and instant messaging that allows users to create their own partial or full custom avatars that mimic human movement.

At the heart of fix8 is H.E.A.R.T. (Human Expression Analysis and Rendering Technology), which digitizes human expressions, gestures, and movements via webcam, enabling users to create, interact, and share their creations across the web, TV, and soon mobile phones.

I am sure we can all see where this is going (step 1: YouTube, step 2: damn kids, step 3: porn, step 4: the uncanny valley, step 5: lawsuits). Pretty cool to see this running on consumer hardware. The demo video is freaky though.