Facial animation for mobile devices

• Grant number: 06/04943-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: December 01, 2006
• End date: November 30, 2007
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Computer Science - Computer Systems
• Principal Investigator: José Mario de Martino
• Grantee: Tatiane Silvia Leite
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Engenharia Elétrica e de Computação (FEEC). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Facial animation is a crucial technology for the development of embodied virtual characters capable of reproducing the communication style, based on speech, facial expressions and gesture, humans are well familiar with. Depending on the application, these virtual characters can play such diverse role as instructors, assistants, avatars, presenters or sale representatives. A variety of different hardware / software has been used to deploy such characters, including, personal computers, Web, game consoles and mobile devices. In particular, the deployment of facial animation on mobile is a promising option for mobile videotelephony due to the potential reduction of data transmission. In this scenario, instead of video transmission, it is only necessary to transmit a few parameters specifying the utterance and associated facial expressions. The project has the goal to study and improve our understanding of mobile facial animation by porting the facial animation system developed at the Department of Computer Engineering and Industrial Automation of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering - State University of Campinas to the Java 2 Micro Edition Platform (J2ME). The original version of the facial animation software was designed and implemented for the Java 2 Standard Edition Platform (J2SE) using the Java Media FrameWork (JMF) and the Java 3D APIs. The project is concerned with the modifications of the existing solution necessary to deal with the issues associated with the resource limitations of mobiles devices.