Abstract
We have already developed a speech-driven embodied group entrained communication system called "SAKURA" for activating group interaction and communication in which speech-driven CG characters called InterActors with both functions of speaker and listener by generating communicative actions and motions are entrained one another as a teacher and some students in the same virtual classroom. In this paper, we analyze the eyeball movement of lecturer in group communication, by using an embodied communication system with a line-of-sight measurement device. On the basis of this analysis, we propose an eyeball movement model, which consists of an saccade model and a group gaze model. Then, we develop an advanced communication system in which the proposed eyeball movement model is applied to a speech-driven embodied group entrained communication system. The communication system generates the eyeball movement of lecturer on the basis of the model, and it generates the head and body entrained motions of characters by using the speech input alone. The system would be effective for group embodied interaction and communication as well as remote interaction and communication support.
