Abstract
In remote communication, systems such as telephone and e-mail are often used in daily life. In addition, research and development of remote communication systems using characters or avatars have also been actively promoted. On the other hand, we have already developed a speech-driven embodied entrainment CG character system called "InterActor" which generates communicative motions and actions such as nods for entrained interaction from speech rhythm based on only speech input. Furthermore, we have developed an advanced embodied entrainment character system which includes the functions of affective motion and expression from the meaning of utterance by speech recognition as well as the entrained function of InterActor for affective avatar-mediated communication. However, in the system using speech recognition, since the processing of speech recognition is performed after utterance, the delay occurs between the utterance and character's motions. In this paper, focusing on non-real-time processing for embodied character systems, such as voice mail and e-mail, we propose a method for synchronizing the timing between utterance and character's behavior from voice input or text input. Furthermore, we develop a voice messenger system by using the advanced embodied entrainment character system with the proposed method, and demonstrate the effectiveness of the system in an evaluation experiment by using the developed system.
