A realistic, virtual head for human–computer interaction

Abstract

a b s t r a c tIn this paper an interactive and realistic virtual head oriented to human-computer interaction and social robotics is presented. It has been designed following a hybrid approach, taking robotic characteristics into account and searching for a convergence between these characteristics, real facial actions and animation techniques. An initial head model is first obtained from a real person using a laser scanner. Then the model is animated using a hierarchical skeleton based procedure. The proposed rig structure is close to real facial muscular anatomy and its behaviour follows the Facial Action Coding System. Speech synthesis and visual human-face tracking capabilities are also integrated for providing the head with further interaction ability. Using the said hybrid approach, the head can be readily linked to a social-robot architecture. The opinions of a number of persons interacting with this social avatar have been evaluated and are reported in the paper, as against their reactions when interacting with a social robot with a mechatronic face. Results show the suitability of the avatar for on-screen, real-time interfacing in human-computer interaction. The proposed technique could also be helpful in the future for designing and parameterizing mechatronic human-like heads for social robots.

A bellboy robot: Study of the effects of robot behaviour on user engagement and comfort

“…To date, experimentation in user acceptance towards social and service robots has mainly been done in laboratory environments or under controlled conditions. Although simulations and modelling techniques have been common methods in Human-Robot Interaction studies (Marcos et al, 2009(Marcos et al, , 2013, nowadays it is common practice for experiments in the lab to include fully functional robots (Fiore et al, 2013). However, the environment the robot is planned to operate in adds another level of complexity, which should be taken into account when performing service robot related studies.…”

Comparing avatar game representation preferences across three age groups

“…Each question was rated on a 5-point Likert scale (1: strongly disagree, to 5: strongly agree). Including positive and negative statements, questions for the constructs of attractiveness and homophily drew influence from McCroskey et al [4] analysis of interpersonal rating of physical attraction and homophily; while two of the questions of expressiveness were adapted from Marcos et al [3] comparative evaluation of a head avatar. Constructs scores were calculated by averaging the related items within each construct.…”

3D Virtual worlds and the metaverse

“…These techniques are still best applied to pre-rendered animations, with dynamic real-time synthesis posing an ongoing challenge [Joly 2010]. Alternative approaches include the modeling of real facial muscular anatomy [Marcos et al 2010] and rendering of the entire human form for applications, such as sports analysis or telepresence [Vignais et al 2010;Aspin and Roberts 2011].…”