Development of a speech-driven embodied entrainment character system with pupil response

Abstract

We have developed a speech-driven embodied entrainment character called “InterActor” that had functions of both speaker and listener for supporting human interaction and communication. This character would generate communicative actions and movements such as nodding, body movements, and eyeball movements by using only speech input. In this paper, we analyze the pupil response during the face-to-face communication and non-face-to-face communication with the typical users of the character system. On the basis of the analysis results, we enhance the functionalities of the character and develop an advanced speech-driven embodied entrainment character system for expressing the pupil response.