A video communication system with a virtual pupil CG superimposed on the partner’s pupil

Pupil response plays an important role in expression of talker’s affect in an embodied interaction and communication. Focusing on the pupil response in human voice communication, we analyzed the pupil response during utterance, and demonstrated that the pupil enlarges and contracts in synchronization with the burst-pause (ON-OFF) of the utterance. In addition, it was confirmed that the pupil response is effective for enhancing affective conveyance by using the developed system in which an interactive CG character generates the pupil response based on the synchronization with the burst-pause of utterance. In this study, we developed a video communication system with a virtual pupil CG superimposed on the partner’s pupil for enhancing affective conveyance. This system generates a virtual pupil response in synchronization with the talker’s burst-pause of utterance. We performed a communication experiment under the condition that the virtual pupil CG is generated by being synchronized with the talker’s burst-pause of utterance. The effectiveness of the system was demonstrated by means of sensory evaluations of 12 pairs of participants in the video communication.