Implementing and Evaluating a Laughing Virtual Character

Abstract

Laughter is a social signal capable of facilitating interaction in groups of people: it communicates interest, helps to improve creativity, and facilitates sociability. This article focuses on: endowing virtual characters with computational models of laughter synthesis, based on an expressivity-copying paradigm; evaluating how the physically co-presence of the laughing character impacts on the user’s perception of an audio stimulus and mood. We adopt music as a means to stimulate laughter. Results show that the character presence influences the user’s perception of music and mood. Expressivity-copying has an influence on the user’s perception of music, but does not have any significant impact on mood.