Abstract: A virtual human is a digital representation of various characteristics (including geometry, behavior,perception,emotion,physiology,psychology,sociality etc.) of a real human in a virtual world.It presents the characteristics of the real human into digital reappearance in a highly precise manner.The first part of the paper introduces the background of virtual human technology and potential applications of the technology in the field of art & design.The main content of the paper deals with research on the technology of human body modeling,motion control,crowd simulation,virtual perception and affective computing.The final part of the paper discusses the correlations and collaborations among the scientists between the subjects of computer science and art & design in our study.