A common practice in crowd animation is the use of human templates. A human template is a 3D character defined by its mesh, skeletal structure, materials, and textures. A crowd simulation is created by repeatedly instantiating a small set of human templates. For each instance, one texture is randomly chosen from the template’s available texture set, and color and shape variety techniques are applied so that multiple instances of the same template appear different (Thalmann & Musse, 2013). When dealing with very large crowds, it is inevitable to end up with instances that are exactly identical to other instances, as the number of different textures and shape modifications is limited. This poses a problem for crowd animation, as the viewers’ perception of identical characters could significantly decrease the believability of the crowd simulation. A variety of factors could affect viewers’ perception of identical characters, including crowd size, distance of the characters from the camera, background, movement, lighting conditions, etc. The study reported in this paper examined the extent to which the type of locomotion of the crowd characters affects the viewer’s ability to perceive identical instances within a medium size crowd (20 characters). The experiment involved 51 participants and compared the time the participants took to recognize two identical characters in three different locomotion scenarios (i.e. standing, walking, and running). Findings show that the type of locomotion did not have a statistically significant effect on the time subjects took to identify identical characters within the crowd. Hence, results suggest that audience perception of identical characters in a medium size crowd is not affected by the type of movement of the characters.

VIEIRA, Roberto César Cavalcante. Geração de personagens virtuais simulando o processo reprodutivo de seres diplóides. 2007. 81 f. Dissertação (Mestrado em ciência da computação)- Universidade Federal do Ceará, Fortaleza-CE, 2007. / Submitted by Elineudson Ribeiro (elineudsonr@gmail.com) on 2016-07-12T16:36:44Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2007_dis_rccvieira.pdf: 16247883 bytes, checksum: a475b8382433f145cfc9fbc0feb2c480 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Rocilda Sales (rocilda@ufc.br) on 2016-07-21T16:12:01Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2007_dis_rccvieira.pdf: 16247883 bytes, checksum: a475b8382433f145cfc9fbc0feb2c480 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-21T16:12:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2007_dis_rccvieira.pdf: 16247883 bytes, checksum: a475b8382433f145cfc9fbc0feb2c480 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007 / In many Computer Graphics aplications, virtual character are needed, and can be used in animations, educational softwares, as an avatar, chosen to represent an user in a virtual reality application, etc. Usually, the available models is very limited. Therefore, combinations of hair color, cloth texture, and skin color are used to increase the selection space. In this paper, human reproduction is mimicked to produce an unlimited number of characters, which inherit traits from two parents. The meshes of all models are constructed based on control parameters that are distributed as genes among a group of chromosomes. Hence, the implementation consists of a pre-selected distribution of characteristics, represented as control parameters, over a pre-determined number of chromosome pairs for both parents; followed by a simulation of the father’s and mother’s gametes generation; which are randomly combined in a simulated fecundation. The diversity is ensured in three random processes: 1) random exchange of segments during crossover; 2) random alignment of homologous chromosomes at metaphase I of meiosis; and 3) random union of male and female gametes during fecundation. / Em inúmeras aplicações de Computação Gráfica, são necessários personagens virtuais, que podem ser utilizados em animações, aplicações educativas, representação de usuários em aplicações de realidade virtual, etc. Geralmente o número de modelos disponíveis é bastante limitado. Combinações de cor do cabelo, textura da roupa e cor da pele são utilizadas para ampliar as possibilidades de seleção. Neste trabalho, a reprodução humana é simulada para produzir um número ilimitado de personagens, que herdam características dos seus dois ascendentes. As malhas dos modelos são construídas a partir de parâmetros de controle que são distribuídos como genes entre um grupo de cromossomos. Assim, a implementação consiste na distribuição das características, representadas como parâmetros de controle, sobre um número pré-especificado de pares de cromossomos dos pais; seguida pela simulação do processo de geração dos gametas do pai e da mãe, os quais são aleatoriamente combinados através de fecundação simulada. A diversidade é garantida através de três processos aleatórios: 1) a troca aleatória de segmentos durante o crossover que ocorre na prófase I da meiose; 2) o alinhamento aleatório dos cromossomos homólogos durante a metáfase I da meiose; 3) a união aleatória dos gametas masculinos e femininos durante a fecundação.

CoordenaÃÃo de AperfeiÃoamento de Pessoal de NÃvel Superior / Em inÃmeras aplicaÃÃes de ComputaÃÃo GrÃfica, sÃo necessÃrios personagens virtuais, que podem ser utilizados em animaÃÃes, aplicaÃÃes educativas, representaÃÃo de usuÃrios em aplicaÃÃes de realidade virtual, etc. Geralmente o nÃmero de modelos disponÃveis à bastante limitado. CombinaÃÃes de cor do cabelo, textura da roupa e cor da pele sÃo utilizadas para ampliar as possibilidades de seleÃÃo. Neste trabalho, a reproduÃÃo humana à simulada para produzir um nÃmero ilimitado de personagens, que herdam caracterÃsticas dos seus dois ascendentes. As malhas dos modelos sÃo construÃdas a partir de parÃmetros de controle que sÃo distribuÃdos como genes entre um grupo de cromossomos. Assim, a implementaÃÃo consiste na distribuiÃÃo das caracterÃsticas, representadas como parÃmetros de controle, sobre um nÃmero prÃ-especificado de pares de cromossomos dos pais; seguida pela simulaÃÃo do processo de geraÃÃo dos gametas do pai e da mÃe, os quais sÃo aleatoriamente combinados atravÃs de fecundaÃÃo simulada. A diversidade à garantida atravÃs de trÃs processos aleatÃrios: 1) a troca aleatÃria de segmentos durante o crossover que ocorre na prÃfase I da meiose; 2) o alinhamento aleatÃrio dos cromossomos homÃlogos durante a metÃfase I da meiose; 3) a uniÃo aleatÃria dos gametas masculinos e femininos durante a fecundaÃÃo. / In many Computer Graphics aplications, virtual character are needed, and can be used in animations, educational softwares, as an avatar, chosen to represent an user in a virtual reality application, etc. Usually, the available models is very limited. Therefore, combinations of hair color, cloth texture, and skin color are used to increase the selection space. In this paper, human reproduction is mimicked to produce an unlimited number of characters, which inherit traits from two parents. The meshes of all models are constructed based on control parameters that are distributed as genes among a group of chromosomes. Hence, the implementation consists of a pre-selected distribution of characteristics, represented as control parameters, over a pre-determined number of chromosome pairs for both parents; followed by a simulation of the fatherâs and motherâs gametes generation; which are randomly combined in a simulated fecundation. The diversity is ensured in three random processes: 1) random exchange of segments during crossover; 2) random alignment of homologous chromosomes at metaphase I of meiosis; and 3) random union of male and female gametes during fecundation.

This thesis investigates the effect of emotional facial expressions of a virtual character on people&rsquo / s performance for interactive digital tasks. The basic and universal emotions are used in the study. Facial expressions of these emotions are created according to the Facial Action Coding System (FACS), which is a system that describes facial movements in the face. The patterns of cooccurences of Action Units (descriptions of facial movements defined in FACS) for basic emotions are also implemented into emotional facial expressions with regard to findings of the studies in the literature. A study was conducted to validate the recognition of emotion specific facial expressions that are built by Poser software. To investigate the effect of emotional facial expressions on people&rsquo / s performance for digital interactive tasks in a virtual environment, a digital interactive application created by Unity software was used in the final study of the thesis.

Le mouvement est une composante primordiale et nécessaire de notre existence. Nous l’utilisons tous les jours pour accomplir des tâches simples et essentielles, mais également pour communiquer. Que cela soit intentionnel ou non, nos mouvements signent nos différences interindividuelles, mais aussi intra-individuelles liées à nos états émotionnels, notre status, et nos intentions. Au cours d’une même journée, la cinématique de nos mouvements tend inéluctablement à évoluer et à s’adapter en fonction de notre environnement social. Ce qui différencie le mouvement des robots et des personnages virtuels de celui des humains est sa capacité à varier, un humain ne reproduisant jamais deux mouvements identiques. Néanmoins, ce contraste est de moins en moins évident. Depuis Darwin et ses travaux sur l’impact des émotions dans le mouvement jusqu’aux plus récentes études sur l’expressivité du mouvement dans des contextes d’interactions (p. ex. homme femme, interaction professeur-élève) et d’applications variées (p. ex. autisme, exergame), les chercheurs et entreprises cherchent à implémenter la variabilité du mouvement biologique humain dans les interactions homme-machine (IHM). En s’appuyant sur les Sciences sociales, du mouvement et de l’informatique, ce travail doctoral multidisciplinaire contribue à la compréhension de l’action et de la perception de mouvement expressif à travers trois études dans un contexte sportif d’interaction coach-élève. La première étude a pour objectif de comprendre comment l’expressivité du mouvement humain signe l’émotion perçue. Dans la seconde étude, nous envisageons plusieurs dyades composées de participants dont les status de passations et les conditions expérimentales évoluaient. Enfin, une dernière expérience orientée IHM a été réalisée. Au cours de celle-ci, des personnages virtuels expressifs ont été conçus pour interagir non verbalement avec les participants. Les résultats de ces travaux permettent de mettre en évidence que certains paramètres de l’expressivité du mouvement issue de séries temporelles (ST) (Energie, Caratère direct, Rigidité et l’étendue) sont nécessaires pour discriminer les affects, les status et les ressentis des participants au sein des interactions. La visée applicative de ce travail doctoral est la création d’un coach virtuel qui, au moyen de ces mouvements expressifs, permet une interaction dynamique et crédible. / Movement is a major component of our daily life. Every day we use it to both perform simple and essential task and to communicate. Intentionnal or not our movements sign our intraindividual and interindividual differences liked to our status, intentions and affects. In the same day, the cinematic of our movements evolve and adapt according of our social environnement. Distinction between movements of robot – virtual character and human movement is that the latter can vary. Indeed an identical movement made twice by a human will not be perfectly the same. However this specificity tends to change. From Darwin’s first works studying the impact of affect on movement to recent studies about movement expressivity in various interactive context (e.g. man-woman, student-professor interaction) and various applications (e.g. Autism, Exergames) researchers and entreprises seek to implement this human specificity in human computer interaction (HCI). Based on social science, movement science and computer science, this multidisciplinary work contributes to the understanding of action and perception of expressive movements thanks to three studies in coach-student sport context interaction. The first study aims at understanding how the perceived affect impact the expressivity of human movement. In the second study we examine dyadic interactions involving different status of participants and social set-up. Finaly we desgined an expressive full-body virtual agent and used it in an interactive trask. The main contribution of this PhD thesis is to show that expressivity features computed from different time-series (Energy, Caractère franc,rigidité and sptatial extent) are relevant to discriminate participants’ affects, status and thoughts. One goal and possible application of this work is the design of a virtual trainer allowing credible and dynamic full-body interactions thanks to its expressive movements.

No description available.

Dans le cadre de la nouvelle société de l'information multimédia et communicante, cette thèse propose des contributions méthodologiques et techniques relatives à la représentation, l'animation et la transmission des objets virtuels.<br /><br />Les méthodes existantes sont analysées de façon comparée et les performances des standards multimédias actuels évaluées en termes de réalisme d'animation et de débit de transmission. Pour surmonter les limitations mises en évidence, un nouveau cadre de modélisation et d'animation de personnages virtuels est proposé. Le modèle SMS (Skeleton, Muscle and Skin), fondé sur le concept de contrôleur de déformation d'un maillage, est introduit et sa formulation mathématique développée. Le graphe de scène 3D et le flux de compression associés à SMS sont décrits. L'approche SMS est évaluée dans le cadre d'un nouveau service de transmission télévisuelle d'un signeur virtuel destinés aux déficients auditifs. Le modèle SMS a été promu dans le standard MPEG-4 version 5.

The purpose of this research study was to explore the impact of virtual character design on user emotional experience and user behavior in a simulated environment. With simulation training increasing in popularity as a tool for teaching social skills, it is essential that social interactions in virtual environments provide authentic opportunities for practice (Swartout et al., 2006). This study used Interactive Performance Theory (Wirth, 2012) to examine the effect of designing a virtual buddy character with ineffective traits instead of effective or expert traits. The sample population for this study (n = 145) consisted of first year university students enrolled in courses in the fall of 2013 at the University of Central Florida. Data on participant emotional experience and behavior were collected through questionnaires, researcher observations, and physiological signal recording that included participant heart rate and galvanic skin response. Data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of variances (MANOVA), Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysis of variance, and qualitative thematic coding of participant verbal behavior and written responses. Results of the analysis revealed that participants who interacted with an ineffective virtual buddy character had statistically significant higher averages of verbal statements to the antagonist in the simulated environment and statistically significant lower perceptions of antagonist amiability than participants who interacted with an effective virtual buddy. Additionally, participants who interacted with a virtual buddy of the opposite gender gave statistically significant higher ecological validity scores to the simulated environment than participants who interacted with a virtual buddy of the same gender. Qualitative analysis also revealed that participants tended to describe the female buddy character with more ineffective traits than the male buddy character even though effective and ineffective design conditions were equally divided for both groups. Further research should be conducted on the effect of virtual buddy character design in different types of simulation environments and with different target audiences.

近年來越來越多虛實整合技術不斷地湧出，像是電影阿凡達或虛實互動型態的表演。這樣的表演會根據事先預錄好的虛擬角色進行演出，但要成功地演出需要演員們不斷的練習。另外,許多電影利用攝影機捕捉人體姿態來與虛擬角色互動，但此方法受限於燈光環境以及障礙物。 此篇論文運用穿戴式裝置與新一代無線網路藍芽4.0,提出即時追蹤技術套用於這類表演,可使得演出更加豐富並且能即興創作。然而，目前受限於穿戴式平台上的藍芽訊號強度更新頻率每秒只有5至10次且傳輸容量有限，所以本篇論文結合體態感測裝置輔助無線網路藍芽4.0,提升對穿戴者的即時追蹤能力。實驗結果與真實位置只有0.3至0.5秒的延遲時間,並在校內進行兩場互動式展演作驗證成果。未來期許可以將此技術運用於多人展演場，讓更多使用者可以互動體驗。 / Recently, more and more interactive performance technologies appear such as Avatar or virtual-character integrated art perform. Such performs are based on pre-made animations and physics simulations. However, this kind of shows need a lot of practice, and it is impossible that audience or performers play with or interact with the virtual characters. In addition, many moviemakers use high quality cameras to distinguish body postures. Although cameras can record anything with high precision, it is constrained on the light and obstacles of the environments. If we, somehow, can capture the motion of the performers in real time, then we are able to interact with virtual characters and make improvisation possible. This thesis aims to use the wearable sensors and the Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI) of BLE to track in real-time. However, the update rate of RSSI is limited to 5~10 per second. This thesis proposed a tracking technique which combines with wearable motion sensors to assist BLE localization. The tracking lag can be reduced to only 0.3~0.5 seconds, and also real performance was experimented in the campus. In the future, we hope to use this technique on interactive performance with many people in different places.

Depuis la loi du 11-02-2005 pour l’égalité des droits et des chances, les lieux ouverts au public doivent accueillir les Sourds en Langue des Signes Française (LSF). C’est dans le cadre du développement d’outils technologiques de diffusion de LSF que nous avons travaillé, plus particulièrement au niveau de la traduction automatique du français écrit vers la LSF. Notre thèse commence par un état de l’art relatif aux connaissances sur la LSF (ressources disponibles et supports d’expression de la LSF) avant d’approfondir des notions de grammaire descriptive. Notre hypothèse de travail est la suivant : la LSF est une langue et, à ce titre, la traduction automatique lui est applicable.Nous décrivons ensuite les spécifications linguistiques pour le traitement automatique, en fonction des observations mises en avant dans l’état de l’art et des propositions de nos informateurs. Nous détaillons notre méthodologie et présentons l’avancée de nos travaux autour de la formalisation des données linguistiques à partir des spécificités de la LSF dont certaines (model verbal, modification adjectivale et adverbiale, organisation des substantifs, problématiques de l’accord) ont nécessité un traitement plus approfondi. Nous présentons le cadre applicatif dans lequel nous avons travaillé : les systèmes de traduction automatique et d’animation de personnage virtuel de France Telecom R&D. Puis, après un rapide état de l’art sur les technologies avatar nous décrivons nos modalités de contrôle du moteur de synthèse de geste grâce au format d’échange mis au point. Enfin, nous terminons par nos évaluations et perspectives de recherche et de développements qui pourront suivre cette Thèse.Notre approche a donné ses premiers résultats puisque nous avons atteint notre objectif de faire fonctionner la chaîne complète de traduction : de la saisie d'un énoncé en français jusqu'à la réalisation de l'énoncé correspondant en LSF par un personnage de synthèse. / Since the law was voted the 11-02-2005 for equal rights and opportunities: places open to anyone (public places, shops, internet, etc.) should welcome the Deaf in French Sign Language (FSL). We have worked on the development of technological tools to promote LSF, especially in machine translation from written French to FSL.Our thesis begins with a presentation of knowledge on FSL (theoretical resources and ways to edit FSL) and follows by further concepts of descriptive grammar. Our working hypothesis is: FSL is a language and, therefore, machine translation is relevant.We describe the language specifications for automatic processing, based on scientific knowledge and proposals of our native FSL speaker informants. We also expose our methodology, and do present the advancement of our work in the formalization of linguistic data based on the specificities of FSL which certain (verbs scheme, adjective and adverb modification, organization of nouns, agreement patterns) require further analysis.We do present the application framework in which we worked on: the machine translation system and virtual characters animation system of France Telecom R&D.After a short avatar technology presentation, we explain our control modalities of the gesture synthesis engine through the exchange format that we developed.Finally, we conclude with an evaluation, researches and developments perspectives that could follow this thesis.Our approach has produced its first results since we have achieved our goal of running the full translation chain: from the input of a sentence in French to the realization of the corresponding sentence in FSL with a synthetic character.