Credible Gesture Interaction – INGREDIBLE

The goal of the project INGREDIBLE is to propose a set of scientific innovations in the domain of interactions between humans and virtual actors. The project aims at developing a prototype of an autonomous virtual actor capable a dynamic affective bodily coupling with a human whose gesture are analyzed in real time. The main focus is on the dynamic of the coupling of the gestures which is considered to be the key point of the feeling of the “presence of the other” and the “involvement” of the users in the virtual reality systems of the future. Each actor's gesture or variation in the gesture changes the other's and vice versa. Depending of the emotional states of the participants, it can lead to the emergence of coordination, a gesture based dialogue, composed of initiatives and imitations which is singular. It is this singularity that is specific to these “real” human interactions which we want to be translated in the real/virtual space.

In particular, our approach will include in a particular manner several observed phenomenon in body interaction : integration of the different channel carrying the expressiveness (body position, quality of the movement, gestures), imitation, postural convergence and synchrony. The project will focus on the body expression of the emotions in situations of interaction. It will also focus on the dynamics of the chain of the gestures.

The project will not tackle the linguistic and oral aspects. This choice is justified by a realist estimate of the complexity of the task to be realized in a limited time. The real time gesture based interaction alone is a full-fledged domain which can be separated from the analysis of the speech in a first approach. In order to reach the full wanted behavioral richness , the interaction must be contextualized by the mean of predefined scenarios. The fact the mechanisms of body interaction are generic, through different contexts, allows this separate study to better prepare a future link between oral and body interaction.

For the content, the project tends to allow a synergy between several scientific domains :
- Study and formalization of the dynamic of the body interaction between humans
- Study on the body expression and posture of the emotions
- Real time gesture recognition and anticipation
- Model of autonomous interactive agents
- Computer generation of expressive movements and adaptation in real time

The projet INGREDIBLE is also learning toward applications, using :
- A generic approach using several animation platforms and several scenarios for the application.
- An evaluation of the capacity offered by several peripheral (Kinect, Optitrack, Moven, …) and animation platform (MARC, AréVi/HLIB, SMR).
- Scenarios for the use of the prototype coming from different domains (drama, sport, education).
- Users proposing new scenarios et allowing the guarantee the accuracy of the needs.