Towards Privacy-preserving Photorealistic Self-avatars in Mixed Reality

Fuente: arXiv
Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Hauptverfasser: Wilson, Ethan, Bindschaedler, Vincent, Jörg, Sophie, Sheikholeslam, Sean, Butler, Kevin, Jain, Eakta
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
_version_ 1866915417123979264
author Wilson, Ethan
Bindschaedler, Vincent
Jörg, Sophie
Sheikholeslam, Sean
Butler, Kevin
Jain, Eakta
author_facet Wilson, Ethan
Bindschaedler, Vincent
Jörg, Sophie
Sheikholeslam, Sean
Butler, Kevin
Jain, Eakta
contents Photorealistic 3D avatar generation has rapidly improved in recent years, and realistic avatars that match a user's true appearance are more feasible in Mixed Reality (MR) than ever before. Yet, there are known risks to sharing one's likeness online, and photorealistic MR avatars could exacerbate these risks. If user likenesses were to be shared broadly, there are risks for cyber abuse or targeted fraud based on user appearances. We propose an alternate avatar rendering scheme for broader social MR -- synthesizing realistic avatars that preserve a user's demographic identity while being distinct enough from the individual user to protect facial biometric information. We introduce a methodology for privatizing appearance by isolating identity within the feature space of identity-encoding generative models. We develop two algorithms that then obfuscate identity: \epsmethod{} provides differential privacy guarantees and \thetamethod{} provides fine-grained control for the level of identity offset. These methods are shown to successfully generate de-identified virtual avatars across multiple generative architectures in 2D and 3D. With these techniques, it is possible to protect user privacy while largely preserving attributes related to sense of self. Employing these techniques in public settings could enable the use of photorealistic avatars broadly in MR, maintaining high realism and immersion without privacy risk.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_22153
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Towards Privacy-preserving Photorealistic Self-avatars in Mixed Reality
Wilson, Ethan
Bindschaedler, Vincent
Jörg, Sophie
Sheikholeslam, Sean
Butler, Kevin
Jain, Eakta
Human-Computer Interaction
Cryptography and Security
Photorealistic 3D avatar generation has rapidly improved in recent years, and realistic avatars that match a user's true appearance are more feasible in Mixed Reality (MR) than ever before. Yet, there are known risks to sharing one's likeness online, and photorealistic MR avatars could exacerbate these risks. If user likenesses were to be shared broadly, there are risks for cyber abuse or targeted fraud based on user appearances. We propose an alternate avatar rendering scheme for broader social MR -- synthesizing realistic avatars that preserve a user's demographic identity while being distinct enough from the individual user to protect facial biometric information. We introduce a methodology for privatizing appearance by isolating identity within the feature space of identity-encoding generative models. We develop two algorithms that then obfuscate identity: \epsmethod{} provides differential privacy guarantees and \thetamethod{} provides fine-grained control for the level of identity offset. These methods are shown to successfully generate de-identified virtual avatars across multiple generative architectures in 2D and 3D. With these techniques, it is possible to protect user privacy while largely preserving attributes related to sense of self. Employing these techniques in public settings could enable the use of photorealistic avatars broadly in MR, maintaining high realism and immersion without privacy risk.
title Towards Privacy-preserving Photorealistic Self-avatars in Mixed Reality
topic Human-Computer Interaction
Cryptography and Security
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.22153