Emotional Body Movements.
HUMAINE Summer School (Genova, Italy 2006)
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Emotional Body Movements
Ahmad S. Shaarani, Daniela M. Romano
Department of Computer Science
Regent Court, 211 Portobello Street
Sheffield, S1 4DP, UK
Email: [email protected], [email protected]
Abstract
This study is aims to find out the relationship between expressive body movements with basic
emotions using believable virtual human. The approach of the study is to find out the quality aspects of
body movements that can represent specific emotions. Upon gathering the required movements, an
animation 3D virtual human will be build to simulate the quality movements. Finally, a survey will be
conducted to analyse users’ acceptance of gestures and quality body movements of six basic emotions.
Introduction
Nonverbal expression and perception of emotions are based on multiple channel or mode of
communication. The relationship between emotions and facial expressions as well as the association
between changes of voice during communication has been widely studied (Ekman, 1999; Izard, 1994;
Cowie & Cornelius, 2003). On the other hand, not enough research regarding the association between
body movements with basic humans’ emotions has been conducted. This is mainly because the
relationship between emotions and body movements is regard as a weak channel compared to other
nonverbal communication such as facial expression (Ekman, 1999). Another possible reason is because
body motion contains a high degree of flexibility that makes it difficult to measure. This problem is an
interesting challenge to investigate.
Body movements and emotions
In dance, body movement are deliberately used as a prime vehicle of expression (Camurri et al.,
2003). Still the potential of using whole body movement to express emotional contents is a neglected
topic in nonverbal research. This research project is an attempt to assess whether basic human emotion
can be recognised through whole body movement represented using virtual humans.
Expressive body movement reflect certain basic emotion. In particular, Meijer (1989) and
Wallbott (1998) claim that certain body movement helps a person to cope with an experiencing an
emotion and perhaps it is also possible to recognise the underlying emotion through the recognition of the
associated body movement.
Features like: force, velocity and spatial orientation provide a tangible description of movement
and can be used to discriminate one movement from the other. Such description can also be seen as a
description of emotion. For example if one is moving backward this can indicate that he/she is feeling
surprise, shame or fear (Meijer, 1989). If one is not only moving backward, but also at the same time
closing the face with hands and both of the arms are shaking, the combination of movements can be
described as an expression of only one emotion: fear. According to Richmond & McCroskey (2000) knees
will shake and hands will tremble when someone experience fear, which will give a further clue on the
type of emotion one is experiencing.
It is known that at least basic emotions like: fear, anger, surprise, sadness, happiness and disgust
have an agreed meaning across and within cultures (Ekman, 1999; Ekman & Friesen, 2003). Such
characteristic make possible to couple a facial expression (or movements of the face) to the underlying
emotion, at least for Ekman’s six basic emotions. Similarly one can hypotheses that also the body
movements expressing the six basic emotions have a unique agreed meaning across and within cultures,
1
HUMAINE Summer School (Genova, Italy 2006)
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
that allows to interpret the body movement to the felt emotion. This is the general aim of our research.
Such body movements could then be used to create believable virtual humans able to express
recognisable emotions, not only with their faces, but also with their bodies.
Analysis of emotional expression
In order to identify the contribution of body movements to the recognition of emotion, it is
important to have a clear description of the movements. The Laban Movement (LM) provides some
guidelines to create quality body movement that induce particular effects on the spectators of such
movements. It is our aim to discover which combination of movements induces a particular emotion.
Researchers have applied the LM theories in many movement-related field such as acting, drama,
choreography, management behaviour as well as verbal and nonverbal communication. A number of
studies influenced by LM demonstrated the characteristic of general movement features as units that can
be analysed. LM has four major components, which are Body, Space, Shape and Effort (Laban, 1960).
In LM, Body describe which body parts are move, where the movement initiates and how the
movement spreads through the body. Space indicates how large the mover's kinesphere and what
crystalline form is being revealed by the spatial pathways of the movement. Shape specifies the changing
forms that the body makes in space while Effort involves the dynamic qualities of the movement and also
the inner attitude towards using energy (Laban, 1960). In particular the components of Effort and Shape,
contribute to the major direct specifications or indications of expressive human movements (Zhao, 2001).
Effort comprises of four motion factors that are Shape, Weight, Time and Flow where as Shape
dimensions are Horizontal, Vertical, Sagittal and Flow. Effort and Shape qualities are expressed in LM
analysis using numeric parameters that can vary along distinct scale. Effort parameters in LM are
translated into low-level movement parameters that affect the dynamics of the underlying movement
while Shape parameters are used to modify key pose information which affect the dimensions of space of
the underlying movement (Chi et al., 2000). In addition, Zhao (2001) associated to the dimensions of
Effort and Shape a scale ranging from -1 to +1 and has used the numeric parameters in LM to drive upper
body of virtual humans’ movements that is the torso and the upper arms, without relating those to the
emotion conveyed.
This study will relate the parameters for movements of the whole body to emotion, at least for the
six basic Ekman’s emotions, and create believable virtual humans that are able to express emotions in a
manner that is recognised by humans’ spectators. For this purpose, 3D computer animated virtual human
that expressing quality body movements of certain emotions will be produced and the quality of the
expression of emotion will be judged by human subjects.
References:
Camurri, A, Lagerlof, I., and Volpe, G. (2003) Recognizing emotion from dance movement: comparison of spectator
recognition and automated techniques. International Journal: Human-Computer Studies, 59, pp. 213-225.
Chi, D., Costa, M., Zhao, L. and Badler, N. (2000) The EMOTE model for effort and shape. In: Proceedings of The
27th Annual Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, pp. 173-182.
Cowie, R. and Cornelius, R. R. (2003) Describing the emotional states that are expressed in speech. Speech
Communication, 40, pp. 5-32.
Ekaman, P. and Friesen, W.V. (2003) Unmasking the face: a guide to recognizing emotions from facial clues.
Cambridge, MA.
Ekman, P. (1999) Handbook of Cognition and Emotion. Sussex, U.K. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
2
HUMAINE Summer School (Genova, Italy 2006)
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Izard, C. (1994) Innate and universal facial expression: Evidence from developmental and cross-cultural research.
Psychological Bulletin, 115, pp. 288–299.
Laban, R. (1960) The Mastery of Movement. 2nd edition. London and Tonbridge, Macdonald and Evants Ltd.
Meijer, M. (1989) The Contribution of general features of body movement to the attribution of emotions. Journal of
Nonverbal Behaviour, 13(4), pp. 247-268.
Richmond, Virginia P. and McCroskey, James C. (2000) Nonverbal behavior in interpersonal relationship. West
Virginia, USA. Allyn and Bacon.
Wallbott, H. G. (1998) Bodily expression of emotion. European Journal of Social Psychology, 28, pp. 879-896.
Zhao, L. (2001) Synthesis and acquisition of Laban Movement Analysis qualitative parameters for communicative
gestures. Unpublished PhD thesis, Computer and Information Science, Univ. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.
3
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Emotional Body Movements
Ahmad S. Shaarani, Daniela M. Romano
Department of Computer Science
Regent Court, 211 Portobello Street
Sheffield, S1 4DP, UK
Email: [email protected], [email protected]
Abstract
This study is aims to find out the relationship between expressive body movements with basic
emotions using believable virtual human. The approach of the study is to find out the quality aspects of
body movements that can represent specific emotions. Upon gathering the required movements, an
animation 3D virtual human will be build to simulate the quality movements. Finally, a survey will be
conducted to analyse users’ acceptance of gestures and quality body movements of six basic emotions.
Introduction
Nonverbal expression and perception of emotions are based on multiple channel or mode of
communication. The relationship between emotions and facial expressions as well as the association
between changes of voice during communication has been widely studied (Ekman, 1999; Izard, 1994;
Cowie & Cornelius, 2003). On the other hand, not enough research regarding the association between
body movements with basic humans’ emotions has been conducted. This is mainly because the
relationship between emotions and body movements is regard as a weak channel compared to other
nonverbal communication such as facial expression (Ekman, 1999). Another possible reason is because
body motion contains a high degree of flexibility that makes it difficult to measure. This problem is an
interesting challenge to investigate.
Body movements and emotions
In dance, body movement are deliberately used as a prime vehicle of expression (Camurri et al.,
2003). Still the potential of using whole body movement to express emotional contents is a neglected
topic in nonverbal research. This research project is an attempt to assess whether basic human emotion
can be recognised through whole body movement represented using virtual humans.
Expressive body movement reflect certain basic emotion. In particular, Meijer (1989) and
Wallbott (1998) claim that certain body movement helps a person to cope with an experiencing an
emotion and perhaps it is also possible to recognise the underlying emotion through the recognition of the
associated body movement.
Features like: force, velocity and spatial orientation provide a tangible description of movement
and can be used to discriminate one movement from the other. Such description can also be seen as a
description of emotion. For example if one is moving backward this can indicate that he/she is feeling
surprise, shame or fear (Meijer, 1989). If one is not only moving backward, but also at the same time
closing the face with hands and both of the arms are shaking, the combination of movements can be
described as an expression of only one emotion: fear. According to Richmond & McCroskey (2000) knees
will shake and hands will tremble when someone experience fear, which will give a further clue on the
type of emotion one is experiencing.
It is known that at least basic emotions like: fear, anger, surprise, sadness, happiness and disgust
have an agreed meaning across and within cultures (Ekman, 1999; Ekman & Friesen, 2003). Such
characteristic make possible to couple a facial expression (or movements of the face) to the underlying
emotion, at least for Ekman’s six basic emotions. Similarly one can hypotheses that also the body
movements expressing the six basic emotions have a unique agreed meaning across and within cultures,
1
HUMAINE Summer School (Genova, Italy 2006)
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
that allows to interpret the body movement to the felt emotion. This is the general aim of our research.
Such body movements could then be used to create believable virtual humans able to express
recognisable emotions, not only with their faces, but also with their bodies.
Analysis of emotional expression
In order to identify the contribution of body movements to the recognition of emotion, it is
important to have a clear description of the movements. The Laban Movement (LM) provides some
guidelines to create quality body movement that induce particular effects on the spectators of such
movements. It is our aim to discover which combination of movements induces a particular emotion.
Researchers have applied the LM theories in many movement-related field such as acting, drama,
choreography, management behaviour as well as verbal and nonverbal communication. A number of
studies influenced by LM demonstrated the characteristic of general movement features as units that can
be analysed. LM has four major components, which are Body, Space, Shape and Effort (Laban, 1960).
In LM, Body describe which body parts are move, where the movement initiates and how the
movement spreads through the body. Space indicates how large the mover's kinesphere and what
crystalline form is being revealed by the spatial pathways of the movement. Shape specifies the changing
forms that the body makes in space while Effort involves the dynamic qualities of the movement and also
the inner attitude towards using energy (Laban, 1960). In particular the components of Effort and Shape,
contribute to the major direct specifications or indications of expressive human movements (Zhao, 2001).
Effort comprises of four motion factors that are Shape, Weight, Time and Flow where as Shape
dimensions are Horizontal, Vertical, Sagittal and Flow. Effort and Shape qualities are expressed in LM
analysis using numeric parameters that can vary along distinct scale. Effort parameters in LM are
translated into low-level movement parameters that affect the dynamics of the underlying movement
while Shape parameters are used to modify key pose information which affect the dimensions of space of
the underlying movement (Chi et al., 2000). In addition, Zhao (2001) associated to the dimensions of
Effort and Shape a scale ranging from -1 to +1 and has used the numeric parameters in LM to drive upper
body of virtual humans’ movements that is the torso and the upper arms, without relating those to the
emotion conveyed.
This study will relate the parameters for movements of the whole body to emotion, at least for the
six basic Ekman’s emotions, and create believable virtual humans that are able to express emotions in a
manner that is recognised by humans’ spectators. For this purpose, 3D computer animated virtual human
that expressing quality body movements of certain emotions will be produced and the quality of the
expression of emotion will be judged by human subjects.
References:
Camurri, A, Lagerlof, I., and Volpe, G. (2003) Recognizing emotion from dance movement: comparison of spectator
recognition and automated techniques. International Journal: Human-Computer Studies, 59, pp. 213-225.
Chi, D., Costa, M., Zhao, L. and Badler, N. (2000) The EMOTE model for effort and shape. In: Proceedings of The
27th Annual Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, pp. 173-182.
Cowie, R. and Cornelius, R. R. (2003) Describing the emotional states that are expressed in speech. Speech
Communication, 40, pp. 5-32.
Ekaman, P. and Friesen, W.V. (2003) Unmasking the face: a guide to recognizing emotions from facial clues.
Cambridge, MA.
Ekman, P. (1999) Handbook of Cognition and Emotion. Sussex, U.K. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
2
HUMAINE Summer School (Genova, Italy 2006)
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Izard, C. (1994) Innate and universal facial expression: Evidence from developmental and cross-cultural research.
Psychological Bulletin, 115, pp. 288–299.
Laban, R. (1960) The Mastery of Movement. 2nd edition. London and Tonbridge, Macdonald and Evants Ltd.
Meijer, M. (1989) The Contribution of general features of body movement to the attribution of emotions. Journal of
Nonverbal Behaviour, 13(4), pp. 247-268.
Richmond, Virginia P. and McCroskey, James C. (2000) Nonverbal behavior in interpersonal relationship. West
Virginia, USA. Allyn and Bacon.
Wallbott, H. G. (1998) Bodily expression of emotion. European Journal of Social Psychology, 28, pp. 879-896.
Zhao, L. (2001) Synthesis and acquisition of Laban Movement Analysis qualitative parameters for communicative
gestures. Unpublished PhD thesis, Computer and Information Science, Univ. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.
3