Avatar Markup Language

Authors:
Sumedha Kshirsagar;Nadia Magnenat-Thalmann;Anthony Guye-Vuillème;Daniel Thalmann;Kaveh Kamyab;Ebrahim Mamdani
Affiliations:
MIRALab, CUI 24 rue du General Dufour, CH 1211 Geneva, Switzerland;MIRALab, CUI 24 rue du General Dufour, CH 1211 Geneva, Switzerland;LIG, EPFL, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland;LIG, EPFL, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland;IIS, Imperial College, London SW7 2BT, UK;IIS, Imperial College, London SW7 2BT, UK
Venue:
EGVE '02 Proceedings of the workshop on Virtual environments 2002
Year:
2002

Citing 5
Cited 20

Improv: a system for scripting interactive actors in virtual worlds

SIGGRAPH '96 Proceedings of the 23rd annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques
Integration of motion control techniques for virtual human and avatar real-time animation

VRST '97 Proceedings of the ACM symposium on Virtual reality software and technology
Real-time inverse kinematics techniques for anthropomorphic limbs

Graphical Models and Image Processing
BEAT: the Behavior Expression Animation Toolkit

Proceedings of the 28th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques
Principal Components of Expressive Speech Animation

CGI '01 Computer Graphics International 2001

Behavior3D: an XML-based framework for 3D graphics behavior

Web3D '03 Proceedings of the eighth international conference on 3D Web technology
Character animation scripting languages: a comparison

AAMAS '03 Proceedings of the second international joint conference on Autonomous agents and multiagent systems
H-animator: a visual tool for modeling, reuse and sharing of X3D humanoid animations

Proceedings of the eleventh international conference on 3D web technology
Definition of a layered avatar behavior script language for creating and reusing scenario scripts

Multimedia Tools and Applications
Realising voice dialogue management in a collaborative virtual environment

International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology
Avatar Augmented Annotation Interface for e-Learning

ICCS '07 Proceedings of the 7th international conference on Computational Science, Part III: ICCS 2007
Script Language Generation Techniques for 3D Avatar Control Using User Annotation

ICCSA '08 Proceedings of the international conference on Computational Science and Its Applications, Part II
Steps towards a Generic Interface between Interactive Storytelling Applications and Character Animation Engines

ICIDS '08 Proceedings of the 1st Joint International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling: Interactive Storytelling
Virtual presenter

Proceedings of the VIII Brazilian Symposium on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Integrating embodied conversational agent components with a generic framework

Multiagent and Grid Systems - Innovations in intelligent agent technology
Developing embodied agent-based user interface by using interactive drama markup language

Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Ubiquitous Information Management and Communication
CharanisML: A Flexible Virtual Actor Control Interface

Edutainment '09 Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on E-Learning and Games: Learning by Playing. Game-based Education System Design and Development
Virtual characters facial and body animation through the edition and interpretation of mark-up languages

Computers and Graphics
Storyboarding and pre-visualization with X3D

Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Web 3D Technology
In search for your own virtual individual

SAMT'06 Proceedings of the First international conference on Semantic and Digital Media Technologies
Avatar behavior representation and control technique: a hierarchical scripts approach

CIS'04 Proceedings of the First international conference on Computational and Information Science
A layered scripting language technique for avatar behavior representation and control

AIS'04 Proceedings of the 13th international conference on AI, Simulation, and Planning in High Autonomy Systems
Real-Time control of a remote virtual tutor using minimal pen-gestures

ITS'10 Proceedings of the 10th international conference on Intelligent Tutoring Systems - Volume Part II
3D Talking-Head Interface to Voice-Interactive Services on Mobile Phones

International Journal of Mobile Human Computer Interaction
Special Section on Touching the 3rd Dimension: Adapting user interfaces for gestural interaction with the flexible action and articulated skeleton toolkit

Computers and Graphics

Quantified Score

Hi-index	0.00

Visualization

Abstract

Synchronization of speech, facial expressions and body gestures is one of the most critical problems in realistic avatar animation in virtual environments. In this paper, we address this problem by proposing a new high-level animation language to describe avatar animation. The Avatar Markup Language (AML), based on XML, encapsulates the Text to Speech, Facial Animation and Body Animation in a unified manner with appropriate synchronization. We use low-level animation parameters, defined by the MPEG-4 standard, to demonstrate the use of the AML. However, the AML itself is independent of any low-level parameters as such. AML can be effectively used by intelligent software agents to control their 3D graphical representations in the virtual environments. With the help of the associated tools, AML also facilitates to create and share 3D avatar animations quickly and easily. We also discuss how the language has been developed and used within the SoNG project framework. The tools developed to use AML in a real-time animation system incorporating intelligent agents and 3D avatars are also discussed subsequently.