Expressing yourself in a virtual world

Earlier in the year I attended a small C2ISTAR workshop at Qinetiq where I discussed the usefulness of collaborative virtual worlds such as VastPark, within military training. I was asked at the time if there was anyway of improving facial responses in avatars along with improved gesturing.

So I was very interested when I came across a tool from Mixamo called Face Plus, which can capture a users expressions using their webcam and use that within a simulation in realtime.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNaympgBVpQ

I think if this type of system could be incorporated into a collaborative virtual world to help improve key areas of training such as cultural awareness and the issues around the contemporary operating environment. Sure network traffic (sending/receiving facial gestures) issues would need to be overcome, but still, I see real potential for training applications.