The components of conversational facial expressions

Douglas W. Cunningham, Mario Kleiner, Heinrich Bulthoff, Christian Wallraven

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

17 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Conversing with others is one of the most central of human behaviours. In any conversation, humans use facial motion to help modify what is said, to control the flow of a dialog, or to convey complex intentions without saying a word. Here, we employ a custom, image-based, stereo motion-tracking algorithm to track and selectively "freeze" portions of an actor or actress's face in video recordings in order to determine the necessary and sufficient facial motions for nine conversational expressions. The results show that most expressions rely primarily on a single facial area to convey meaning, with different expressions using different facial areas. The results also show that the combination of rigid head, eye, eyebrow, and mouth motion is sufficient to produce versions of these expressions that are as easy to recognize as the original recordings. Finally, the results show that the manipulation technique introduced few perceptible artifacts into the altered video sequences. The use of advanced computer graphics techniques provided a means to systematically examine real facial expressions. This provides not only fundamental insights into human perception and cognition, but also yields the basis for a systematic description of what needs to be animated in order to produce realistic, recognizable facial expressions.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings - 1st Symposium on Applied Perception in Graphics and Visualization, APGV 2004
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
Pages143-149
Number of pages7
ISBN (Print)1581139144, 9781581139143
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2004
EventProceedings - 1st Symposium on Applied Perception in Graphics and Visualization, APGV 2004 - Los Angeles, CA, United States
Duration: 2004 Aug 72004 Aug 8

Publication series

NameProceedings - 1st Symposium on Applied Perception in Graphics and Visualization, APGV 2004

Other

OtherProceedings - 1st Symposium on Applied Perception in Graphics and Visualization, APGV 2004
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityLos Angeles, CA
Period04/8/704/8/8

Keywords

  • Animation
  • Applied perception
  • Computer graphics
  • Facial expressions

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Engineering(all)

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