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Research Statement
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Expressive
Gaze
Manner
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The goal of my research is to
define a model of how the emotional state of a character affects the
way in which nonverbal gaze behaviors, including eye movement,
head movement, and posture shifts, are performed.
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So, why is this important?
Compare the following video clips:
(all require Quicktime or
Quicktime Alternative)
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| On the top, we have a clip from
the 3D animated movie "Toy Story 2," produced by Pixar in association
with Disney, and on the bottom, we have a
trailer of footage from the video game "The Elder Scrolls IV:
Oblivion," produced by Bethesda Studios. The clip from "Toy Story
2" provides an excellent example of expressive
gaze manner. Through the movement of Woody's eyes, head, and
posture,
his emotional state is clear. |
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| On the other hand, the clip from
"Oblivion," while it contains many of
the same aspects as the "Toy Story 2" clip, such as facial expressions,
lip synching, and excellent voice acting, it also has fairly static
postures, and a
rudimentary model of eye movement. Even though a large number of
characters are shown, they all seem to be portraying a fairly similar
emotional state. |
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However, it's not possible to
use the same method for generating gaze animations in a video game such
as "Oblivion" as it is in an animated movie. The process for
generating an animated movie is a slow, incremental process in which
talented artists produce individual animated movements. It can
take months or years to produce a two-hour film. On the other
hand, "Oblivion" had over a thousand characters that the player could
interact with, and provided dozens of hours of gameplay. To
produce large numbers of interactive characters in a dynamic
environment in a reasonable amount of time precludes the use of static
animation, such as that produced for animated films.
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| That's where this research comes
in. I have
placed a timeline of videos here so that
you can see the progress that has been made. |
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"Toy Story 2" video copyright
Pixar/Disney.
"Oblivion" video copyright Bethesda
All other videos copyright Brent Lance and USC/ISI/ICT
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