1. Controlling Gestures on Avatars
Francesca Barrientos
with
John Canny

2. Goals
Develop a simple interface for controlling nonverbal expression (gesture) on avatar bodies
Application: most likely a collaborative work tool
Audio
3D interactive graphics on regular screen
Desktop input devices
Multi-user, networked

3. Outline Motivation State of the art Issues Research snapshot
Solicitation

4. Motivation
Explore capabilities of virtual humans for communication purposes
Hard to control a fully articulated human
Rendering
Network bandwidth
Ease of use

5. Commercial virtual worlds
Blaxxun
ComicChat
Traveler Oz

6. Typical gesture interface
Selecting expressions in The Palace

7. Example interface Video from VRAIS97
Capin + Pandzic + Thalman + Thalman

8. Communication interface
Thalmann’s

9. Virtual tennis
Thalmann’s

10. Autonomous behavior
Viljamsson

11. Scripted/reactive behaviors
Perlin
Random noise adds life

12. How our goals differ Continuous manual control
Non-obtrusive input interface
Avatar movement is an extension of human’s movements
Lifelike motion quality

13. Issues Understanding nonverbal behavior Design of controls Domain
Evaluation

14. Functions of nonverbal behavior
Psychological/Expressive
Expression of emotion
Construction of utterances
Social/Communicative/Interactional
Conversational regulators
Approval, persuasion, listening
Artistic
Dance, theater, puppetry

15. Nonverbal communication types
Proxemics
Kinesics
Context
Facial expression
Gaze
Paralinguistic
...

16. Controls & Interface Gesture designs
Kinematic mappings from input device motion to avatar movements
Interface to select among mappings
Dynamics behavior for lifelike motion

17. Gesture

18. Mappings

19. Early prototypes (video)
Simple avatars implemented in Impulse
Networked application
Inverse kinematics mapping
Physical simulation
Mouse input

20. Slice of research

21. Domain provides context
Design discussions
Architecture
Industrial design
Theater
Storyline and characters provide context
Other applications?

22. Evaluation
Expressive emphasis means evaluating ease of use and expressive satisfaction
Communicative emphasis means evaluating interaction
Motion quality: Realism and Believability

23. Summary Goals of this project State of the art in avatar gesturing
Study of non-verbal behavior
Technical issues in gesture control
Future plans

24. Solicitations Descriptive title for project Ideas for domain
Thoughts on evaluation
Anything else to