A realistic, virtual head for human–computer interaction

In 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.