An embodied virtual communication system with a speech-driven embodied entrainment picture

We have already developed an embodied virtual communication system for human interaction analysis by synthesis. This system provides two remote talkers with a communication environment in which embodied interaction is shared by VirtualActors including the talkers themselves through a virtual face-to-face scene. We confirmed the importance of embodied sharing in embodied communication by using the analysis-by-synthesis system. We have also demonstrated the effects of nodding responses for embodied interaction and communication support. In this paper, we develop an embodied virtual communication system with a speech-driven embodied entrainment picture ldquoInterPicturerdquo for supporting virtual communication. The effects of the developed system are demonstrated by a sensory evaluation and speech-overlap analysis in the communication experiment for 20 pairs of talkers.