Listening heads

Dirk Heylen

pp. 241-259

in: Ipke Wachsmuth, Günther Knoblich (eds), Modeling communication with robots and virtual humans, Berlin, Springer, 2008

Abstract

In [1] we discussed functions of head movements and gaze. In this paper, we will go into more depth in the classification of various head movements: how they are distinguished in both formal and functional terms. We look at the distribution of a selection of primitive head movements and their related meanings and the way they are composed out of smaller units. This catalogue is not intended to be exhaustive and does not take into account the component items from other modalities such as speech, facial expressions, gestures and posture. The research is motivated by our desire to build systems that can interpret and mimick expressive human behaviour.