The SignCom system for data-driven animation of interactive virtual signers

Abstract

In this article we present a multichannel animation system for producing utterances signed in French Sign Language (LSF) by a virtual character. The main challenges of such a system are simultaneously capturing data for the entire body, including the movements of the torso, hands, and face, and developing a data-driven animation engine that takes into account the expressive characteristics of signed languages. Our approach consists of decomposing motion along different channels, representing the body parts that correspond to the linguistic components of signed languages. We show the ability of this animation system to create novel utterances in LSF, and present an evaluation by target users which highlights the importance of the respective body parts in the production of signs. We validate our framework by testing the believability and intelligibility of our virtual signer.