Realistic Simulation of Emotion by Animated Characters

Abstract. A truly realistic virtual environment for simulation would require human characters to display realistic features and behaviours. However, another requirement is believability. These elements would be vital, for example, in order to train students in a medical field by immersing them in scenarios using realistic and believable animated humans. It should provide a concrete experience for effective learning; as defined in Kolb‟s learning cycle [1]. To facilitate this, animation is reaching a point where animated characters are becoming visually realistic. However, due to the effect of the uncanny valley [2], which is a drop in believability as animated characters approach visual perfection, it may be necessary to display realistic behaviour in order to preserve the credibility of the experience. Further, realistic human behaviour by definition conveys emotions. Therefore, it is first necessary to define emotion in ways, which could be simulated by animated characters. The display of emotion has been considered previously for facial animation, but 55 % of non-verbal communication is conveyed through the body [3] and it is not clear how viewers respond to computer generated body cues, or how such a response could be assessed. In this paper the body is presented as a medium for expressing emotion and the methods that could be used to measure the emotional impact of such characters on the user are discussed