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Description  |
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FIELD OF INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to the use of graphical user
interfaces for the computer; and more specifically to the process of
controlling the display of human emotion using facial feature placement on
a graphical user interface of a computer.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Increases in processor capability and reduction in the cost of display
technologies have led to rapid acceptance of computers in our society. One
area of explosive growth for computers and technology is the Internet and
the world wide web. The Internet (sometimes referred to as the world wide
web) is a connection of computers using the TCP/IP protocol which allows a
user to access information by indicating the location of the information
which they desire to retrieve or by traversing hyper-text links which link
different information locations. Many products have been developed which
also assist the user in searching the web for desired information. Access
to the world wide web can be accomplished very inexpensively using a phone
line, an inexpensive computer and web browser software such as Netscape's
Navigator or IBM's Web Explorer. This ability to inexpensively connect
into the world wide web has encouraged its use for much more than business
purposes. The world wide web is used for educational research, shopping,
games, making reservations, trading stock and numerous other purposes.
Children, as well as adults, are frequent users of the world wide web.
One area of the Internet which is attracting significant interest is the
area of Virtual Reality. Virtual Reality (VR) is the term used to identify
the simulation of reality using audio and video or visual input. More
specifically, as stated in "Playing God" by Bernie Roehl and published by
Waite Group Press: "Virtual reality is a computer-generated simulation of
a three -dimensional environment, in which the user is able to both view
and manipulate the contents of that environment. Using various input
devices, users can move through the virtual environment (or cyberspace) in
much the same way that they move through the real world; as they travel
around, the computer keeps track of their location and orientation and
provides a real-time view of the virtual world. Other input devices let
users `reach out and touch` the objects around them, and manipulate them
the way they would objects in everyday life."
Virtual Reality traditionally uses computer simulations containing 3D
graphics and devices to allow the user to interact with the simulation.
Much of what the user can now browse as "data" on the world wide web, the
user may be able to `experience` as 3D web sites that offer three
dimensional views. These web sites are constructed with a Virtual Reality
Modeling Language, herein referred to as VRML, which allows for the design
and implementation of a platform-independent scene descriptions. VRML
utilizes http (a Hyper Text Transfer Protocol used on the internet) in its
implementation.
VRML allows an individual to construct three dimensional, viewable,
representations of objects. These objects can then be placed on a web
site, and viewed on the world wide web, by any user that has a VRML
enabled browser installed on the user's computer. These objects can be
just about any object the VRML author can imagine, such as: objects such
as telephones, houses, cityscapes, or three dimensional representations of
data, or even animals or human characters.
As computer systems become more and more advanced, the graphical user
interfaces have also become more advanced and more complicated. The amount
of information capable of being processed by computers is incomprehensible
to the average user. Methods need to be developed to more efficiently
transfer the information gathered by the computer to the user without
inundating the user with raw data. The graphical user interface is a means
for accomplishing this goal.
A particularly interesting area of use for the graphical user interfaces is
the display of emotion or attitude by way of representing facial
expressions. Character models are becoming increasingly popular as an
advanced metaphor for communications on the Internet. The positioning of
the facial muscles through a graphical user interface allows the transfer
of a great deal of information concerning the subject being represented in
a very concise and quick manner. The user is not required to read through
large amounts of data to understand what the character being represented
is "feeling". This can become very beneficial in such contexts as game
rooms, chat rooms, or other "social" situations while traversing the
Internet.
A number of studies have examined how emotions are expressed. Darwin, for
example, theorized that human facial expressions of emotion evolved from
animal displays ›Darwin, C. (1872/1965). The expression of emotion in man
and animals. Chicago: University of Chicago Press!.Later, Ekman and his
colleagues studied the specific facial muscles, especially those
controlling the eyes, eyebrows and mouth, that are used to communicate
socially the fundamental emotions ›Ekman, P., and Friesen, W. V. (1971).
Unmasking the face. Prentice-Hall: Englewood Cliffs, N.J.!.
Recent work has tied research on the expression of emotion to theories that
describe the relationship between two people in an interaction. The
interpersonal circumplex represents a dominant model for the interpersonal
domain of personality. This model was pioneered in the late 1940's by the
Kaiser Foundation Research Group with champions such as Marvin Freedman,
Rolfe LaForge and Timothy Leary ›e.g., Leary, T. F. (1957). Interpersonal
diagnosis of personality. New York. Ronald Press.!
Follow-up work in this area includes: Conte, H. R., & Plutchik, R. (1981) A
circumplex model for interpersonal personality traits. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 40, 701-711; Kiesler, D. J. (1983) The
1982 interpersonal circle: A taxonomy for complementarity in human
interactions. Psychological Review, 90, 185-214; Strong, S. R., Hills, H.,
Kilmartin, C., DeVries, H., Lanier, K., Nelson, B., Strickland, D., &
Meyer, C. (1988). The dynamic relations among interpersonal behaviors: A
test of complementarity and anticomplementarity. Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology, 54, 798-810; and, Wiggins, J. S., & Broughton, R.
(1985) The interpersonal circle: A structural model for the integration of
personality research. Perspective in Personality, 1, 1-47.
Kiesler's 16 element circumplex model is shown in FIG. 1. It embodies two
fundamental assumptions:
(1) interpersonal traits vary along a circular continuum; traits closer on
the continuum are hypothesized to be more similar than are those further
apart on the continuum;
(2) interpersonal traits are, in part, an expression of two basic
dimensions of interpersonal relation (a) Dominance or Control (versus
submissiveness) and (b) Love or Affiliation (versus hostility).
The vertical axis of Kiesler's circumplex represents the dimension of
control and the horizontal axis represents the dimension of affiliation
(although this could easily be modified as would be obvious to one skilled
in the art). These two basic dimensions of interpersonal relation also
describe the attitude and emotion of social partners and the expression of
these qualities ›Dryer, D. C. (1993). Interpersonal goals and satisfaction
with interactions. Doctoral dissertation, Stanford University; Knutson, B.
D. (1993). A new view of character: Links between facial expression and
disposition. Doctoral dissertation, Stanford University!.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a display mechanism for
showing human emotion on a computer generated likeness of a face.
It is yet another object of the present invention to allow this emotion to
be displayed as a range of a two-dimensional continuum.
It is yet another object of the present invention to represent the emotions
onto the computer generation of a human face using the manipulation and
positioning of the eyes, eye brows, and mouth.
It is yet another object of the present invention to allow the user to
select an emotion and its intensity by clicking the computer's pointing
device with a mouse button or a selector on any point within a two
dimensional graph representing the emotions of the circumplex theory. The
selection of the point being translated into the appropriate value for the
dimension of the emotion, in proportion to the point's position in the
graph for each axis, and the face being updated to reflect the new
emotional state.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The graphical user interface of a computer workstation can be used to
display a likeness of a face on a display device or monitor. By
positioning the features of the face in various ways, the face can be used
to represent and display human emotions. Incorporating the teachings of
the circumplex theory into the graphical user interface of a computer, a
system and method are created which allow the manipulation of the likeness
of a human face such that the eye brows and eyes reflect the Control
dimension of the circumplex theory and the mouth represents the
Affiliation aspects of the circumplex theory.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 depicts the 16 elements of the Kiesler model of the circumplex
theory of interpersonal relationships.
FIG. 2 depicts one example of the user interface of the preferred
embodiment.
FIG. 3 is another example of the user interface of the preferred
embodiment.
FIG. 4 demonstrates an alternative implementation of the preferred
embodiment.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
The present invention describes a graphical metaphor, referred to as an
emotion control for purposes of this disclosure, that allows alteration
and display of human emotions by way of a face in a two dimensional arena.
The control is based on the circumplex theory of interpersonal
relationships. The dimensions utilized by the present invention are the
expression of the Control dimension by way of representing positioning of
the eyes and eye brows and the expression of the Affiliation dimension by
way of representing positioning of the mouth.
For example if the human mouth is displayed in a smile configuration a
positive emotion is expressed. If a frown is displayed a negative emotion
is expressed. Simultaneously, the degree of aggression can be expressed by
the eyes and the eyebrows. The further the eyebrows get from the eyes, the
more passive the expressed emotion.
In the emerging market of VRML, as well as in non-VRML environments,
character models are becoming increasingly popular as an advanced metaphor
for communications on the Internet and the world wide web. Traditionally
the communication of these characters has been limited to `text only` user
interfaces. As these characters communicate with text in chat rooms, game
rooms, and other social contexts, the present invention allows emotions
can be graphically displayed by the characters to add depth to the
communications experience.
Existing art in this area, such as the Microsoft Comic Chat emotion control
allow for display of specific emotions: happiness, sadness, surprise. The
present invention improves the art by giving the computer user a means to
specify emotion in (1) much finer gradations, and (2) a range of
intensity. The user, by placing the emotion index point anywhere in the
plane of the emotion control, can produce many more faces with much finer
detail in the display of the emotion.
FIG. 2 depicts the use of the present invention for manipulating a human
face to represent emotion. The preferred embodiment has been implemented
using a JAVA (JAVA is a registered trademark of Sun Microsystems) applet.
The x,y grid depicted to the left of the human face is used to depict the
continuum of emotion represented by the circumplex theory. The ranges
actually used in the preferred embodiment are negative to positive emotion
on the x-axis and aggressiveness to passiveness on the y-axis (as opposed
to hostile, friendly and dominant, submissive in the purely theoretical
model of FIG. 1).
In the preferred embodiment, the user uses an indicator such as a mouse
click or a pen tap to identify where in the spectrum of the interpersonal
model the emotion to be represented lies. As the user clicks or taps on
the appropriate area, the computer representation of the face changes to
reflect the desired emotion. The greater the distance from the origin of
the grid, the greater the intensity of the expressed emotion. The point
indicated by the pointing device 210 in FIG. 2 is in the lower left
corner. This indicates a degree of negative emotion and aggressiveness
(expressing the emotion "anger", for example). The resulting user
interface reaction is that the facial representation depicts a mouth
intensely frowning 215 to indicate the negative emotion and the eye brows
close to the eyes 220 to reflect the aggressiveness.
FIG. 3 represents the face of the preferred embodiment after the user
selects the center left portion of the interpersonal relationship
continuum wherein the eye brows have reached an intermediate distance from
the eyes 320 indicating that it is not aggressive, yet not passive; it
reflects a middle ground in the control continuum. The mouth reflects an
intense positive emotion (such as "happiness", for example) 315.
Any point on the emotion control box 210, 310 may be selected to give an
infinite gradation of emotions and intensity based on the control and
affiliation aspects.
An alternative means of representing the preferred embodiment is shown in
FIG. 4. In FIG. 4, the facial representation is superimposed on the
emotion control grid. The face in FIG. 4 401 has the emotion control
indicator 410 in the lower right quadrant; this indicates a degree of
positive emotion and aggressiveness (such as a "devilish grin" for
example).
As will be appreciated by one of skill in the art, the present invention is
not intended to be limited to a specific theory of emotional
determination. Nor is it meant to be limited to a specific facial
characteristic (such as a human face, alien face, animal face or inanimate
object face). The present invention is also not isolated to a single
computer system. It is especially well suited to use on the world wide web
or through communications systems. This invention can be implemented in
the use of interactive games, interactive commerce and display
environments.
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