How believable are real faces? Towards a perceptual basis for conversational animation

D. W. Cunningham, M. Breidt, M. Kleiner, C. Wallraven, Heinrich Bulthoff

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Regardless of whether the humans involved are virtual or real, well-developed conversational skills are a necessity. The synthesis of interface agents that are not only understandable but also believable can be greatly aided by knowledge of which facial motions are perceptually necessary and sufficient for clear and believable conversational facial expressions. Here, we recorded several core conversational expressions (agreement, disagreement, happiness, sadness, thinking, and confusion) from several individuals, and then psychophysically determined the perceptual ambiguity and believability of the expressions. The results show that people can identify these expressions quite well, although there are some systematic patterns of confusion. People were also very confident of their identifications and found the expressions to be rather believable. The specific pattern of confusions and confidence ratings have strong implications for conversational animation. Finally, the present results provide the information necessary to begin a more fine-grained analysis of the core components of these expressions.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings - 16th International Conference on Computer Animation and Social Agents, CASA 2003
PublisherIEEE Computer Society
Pages23-29
Number of pages7
ISBN (Electronic)0769519342
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2003
Event16th International Conference on Computer Animation and Social Agents, CASA 2003 - New Brunswick, United States
Duration: 2003 May 82003 May 9

Publication series

NameProceedings - IEEE Workshop on Program Comprehension
Volume2003-January
ISSN (Print)1092-8138

Other

Other16th International Conference on Computer Animation and Social Agents, CASA 2003
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityNew Brunswick
Period03/5/803/5/9

Keywords

  • Avatars
  • Cybernetics
  • Face detection
  • Facial animation
  • Humans
  • Information analysis
  • Motion control
  • Psychology
  • Speech
  • Stress

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Software
  • Hardware and Architecture

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