Today we are announcing a major update to the Avatar SDK. It now features more assets, much faster avatar generation time, including offline generation on mobile devices, and significant discounts. Most importantly, starting from this release, we introduce the new type of avatars that are called Head Avatar, bringing the likeness to a whole new level! Here is a detailed list of changes:

• Head avatars. Contrary to our existing Face avatars that consist of a face and a head without a hairstyle, we can now generate a Head avatar with a face, a head, a hairstyle and a bust! Our AI engine can magically guess the hairstyle of a person from just a single photo! Also, a bust with texture similar to an input image is generated, making the avatar look much more alike the real person! Here are some examples:
  

  The compute time for the Head avatars is under 20 seconds with the Cloud API, not including data transfer. As of now, the Head avatars generation will only be available via Cloud API, the Offline SDK Unity support will be added in future versions.

• Face avatars. We have significantly enhanced the Face avatars engine, including:
  • Much faster generation time: now under 10 seconds in with the Cloud API, and under 7 seconds on Samsung Galaxy S9 or iPhone X!
  • The Offline Unity plugin version 1.5 now works on iPhone 7 and later models, as well as Android phones with at least 1GB of RAM!
  • More hairstyles: we are adding 39 new hairstyles for the Face avatars! The new assets will be available on the Plus plan and higher https://avatarsdk.com/#pricing, as well as in the Offline Unity plugin.
• Pricing updates: we are announcing a 50% discount on the Plus plan! Sign up to have a much lower cost per avatar (only 1.6 cents!) and the access to the additional 39 awesome hairstyles! If you act before July 4th, the discount will be valid for as long as you stay on this plan!

“The new release of Avatar SDK raises the bar for avatars produced from selfies”, said Victor Erukhimov, CEO of Itseez3D, Inc. “Focus group polls show that our avatars are almost as recognizable as photos, and the Offline Unity plugin meets the growing privacy needs of our customers.”

You can try both Head and Face avatars with our online demo and subscribe to the Plus plan by following this link https://accounts.avatarsdk.com/developer/signup/?plan_id=4495050! Add an immersive experience to your product with Avatar SDK!