Dynamic face movement texture enhances the perceived realism of facial expressions of emotion

Chen, C. , Garrod, O. G. B., Schyns, P. G. and Jack, R. E. (2020) Dynamic face movement texture enhances the perceived realism of facial expressions of emotion. In: Proceedings of the 20th ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, Scotland, Virtual Event, UK, 20 - 22 October 2020, ISBN 9781450375863 (doi: 10.1145/3383652.3423912)

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Abstract

Most socially interactive virtual agents that generate facial expressions lack critical visual features such as expressive wrinkles, which could reduce their realistic appearance. Here, we examined the impact of dynamic facial texture on perceptions of realism of facial expressions of emotion and identified the emotion-specific features that enhance this perception. In a human perceptual judgment task, participants (20 white Westerners, 10 female) viewed pairs of facial expressions of the six classic emotions - happy, surprise, fear, disgust, anger and sad - with and without dynamic textures and selected the most realistic one from the pair. Analysis of participant choices showed that facial expressions with dynamic texture are perceived significantly more often as more realistic for all emotions except sad. Further analysis of the facial expression signals showed that emotion-specific features, such as darker forehead furrows in surprise, unilateral nose wrinkling in disgust, and shade variations around the cheeks in happy, enhanced perceptions of realism. Together, our results highlight the importance of equipping virtual agents with dynamic face movement texture to produce realistic facial expressions of emotion.

Item Type:Conference Proceedings
Additional Information:Article No.: 13
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Jack, Professor Rachael and Garrod, Dr Oliver and Schyns, Professor Philippe and Chen, Dr Chaona
Authors: Chen, C., Garrod, O. G. B., Schyns, P. G., and Jack, R. E.
College/School:College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Psychology & Neuroscience
College of Science and Engineering > School of Psychology
Journal Name:Proceedings of the 20th ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents
Publisher:ACM
ISBN:9781450375863
Published Online:19 October 2020
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