Star Citizen developer wants to use your face for in-game chat

Soon, you won’t have to rely on just yelling or typing in all-caps to express yourself in-game. Faceware Technologies is teaming up with Cloud Imperium Games to bring facial animation to Star Citizen. The new Face Over Internet Protocol (FOIP) feature uses webcams to detect expressions and project them onto players’ avatars. Faceware will also be releasing a facial motion sensor that will provide better precision.

Star Citizen is a science-fiction massively multiplayer online game that’s still in development. Developer Cloud Imperium raised over $34 million from fans on crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter. It has compared the title to CCP’s Eve Online, saying that it wants the game to be heavily influenced and shaped by players’ actions and interactions. Peter Busch, Faceware’s vice president of business development, says that adding facial animation will help Star Citizen players to connect more to their characters and enable them to express their emotions.