Kjnj

A Model of Nonverbal Communication and Interpersonal Relationship between Virtual Actors*
P. Bécheiraz and D. Thalmann
Computer Graphics Lab (LIG), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland This paper presents a model of nonverbal communication and interpersonal relationship between virtual actors. Nonverbal communication improves their believability. They react not only to the presence of the other actors but also to their postures. Furthermore, their interpersonal relationships are affected by the issue of social interactions. To avoid homogenous group behaviors, each actor is set with a different character profile. We present an application of this model to create actors involved in social interactions in a virtual public garden. The animation of virtual actors is based on the library AGENTlib which is dedicated to the management of agent entities able to coordinate perception and action.

1

Introduction

A public garden is a place where social interactions occur. People come there for a walk and to meet each other. Therefore, it is an ideal place to study social interactions and changes in social relationships. The way social interactions take place affects relationships. The friendliness or interest of a person for another one evolves according to the attitude adopted by this other person during a communication. Its attitude might have been for instance very disappointing or surprisingly nice. As people are usually not talking loudly, for other people not involved in the conversation, it is hard to hear a word people are saying and only gestures and postures can be watched. Nevertheless, by watching this body language, it is possible to infer the type of relationship between two or three persons and how the conversation is taking place. For instance, how well they know each other or how interested they are in the conversation. Thus, the use of a model of nonverbal communication for virtual actors can increase their

References: [1] I. Ajzen, M. Fishbein. Understanding attitudes and predicting social behavior, Prentice-Hall, 1980. [2] M. Argyle. Bodily Communication. Methuen and Co Ltd., 1975. [3] N. I. Badler, C. Phillips, and B. L. Webber. Simulating Humans: Computer Graphics, Animation, and Control. 1993, Oxford University Press, New York. [4] R. Boulic, T. Capin, Z. Huang, P. Kalra, B. Lintermann, N. Magnenat-Thalmann, L.Moccozet, T. Molet, I. Pandzic, K. Saar, A. Schmitt, J. Shen and D. Thalmann. The HUMANOID Environment for Interactive Animation of Multiple Deformable Human Characters. Proceedings of EUROGRAPHICS 95, p. 337-348 (Maastricht, The Netherlands, August 28-September 1, 1995). [5] R. Boulic, N. Magnenat-Thalmann and D. Thalmann. A Global Human Walking Model with Real Time Kinematic Personification. The Visual Computer, Vol. 6, 1990. [6] Bruderlin, Armin and Thomas W. Calvert. Dynamic Animation of Human Walking. Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 89, p. 233-242 (Boston, MA, July 31-August 4, 1989). [7] K. Dautenhahn. Trying to Imitate - a Step towards Releasing Robots from Social Isolation. Proceedings of From Perception to Action Conference, p. 290-301 (Lausanne, Switzerland, September 7-9, 1994). [8] Girard, Michael and A. A. Maciejewski. Computational Modeling for the Computer Animation of Legged Figures. Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 85, p. 263-270 (San Francisco, CA, July 22-26, 1985). [9] E. T. Hall. The Silent Language. Garden City, Doubleday, 1959. [10] J. K. Hodgins, W. L. Wooten, D. C. Brogan, J. F. O’Brien. Animating Human Athletics. Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 95, p. 71-78 (Los Angeles, CA, August 6-11, 1995). [11] P. Maes, T. Darell, B. Blumberg, A. Pentland. The ALIVE System: Full-Body Interaction with Autonomous Agents. Proceedings of Computer Animation 95, p. 11-18 (Geneva, Switzerland, April 19-21, 1995). [12] M. J. Mataric. From Local Interactions to Collective Intelligence. From the book: The biology and Technology of Intelligent Autonomous Agents. Edited by Luc Steels. NATO ASI Series F, p. 275-295, Vol. 144, 1995. [13] McKenna, Michael and David Zeltzer. Dynamic Simulation of Autonomous Legged Locomotion. Proceedings of SIGRAPH 90, p. 29-38 (Dallas, TX, August 6-10, 1990). [14] A. Mehrabian. Nonverbal communication. Aldine-Atherton, 1972. [15] J. Spiegel, P. Machotka. Messages of the body. The Free Press, Macmillan, 1974. [16] K. Perlin. Interacting with virtual actors. Visual Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 95, p. 92-93 (Los Angeles, CA, August 6-11, 1995). [17] M. H. Raibert and Jessica K. Hodgins. Animation of Dynamic Legged Locomotion. Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 91, p. 349-358 (Las Vegas, NV, July 28-August 2, 1991). [18] C. W. Reynolds. Flocks, Herds, and Schools: A Distributed Behavioral Model. Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 87, p. 25-34 (Anaheim, CA, July 27-31, 1987). [19] X. Tu and D. Terzopoulos. Artificial Fishes: Physics, Locomotion, Perception, Behavior. Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 94, p. 43-50 (Orlando, FL, July 24-29, 1994). [20] M. Unuma, K. Anjyo, R. Takeuchi. Fourier Principles for Emotion-based Human Figure Animation. Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 95, p. 91-96 (Los Angeles, CA, August 6-11, 1995) Autonomous Virtual Humans - 11 - - 12 - Autonomous Virtual Humans