9117110 Badler This is the third year of a three-year continuing grant. The goal of this research is 3-D animation of facial expressions including those conveying emotion correlated with the intonation of the voice. This includes differentiation of timing, pitch and emphasis that are related to semantic distinctions of discourse as "given" and "new" information. Until now, existing systems have not taken into account the link between these two features. The alogrithm to be used will embody rules that control these various modes of expression. The choice of accents and their placement will be examined in conjunction with whether the message is new or old. The facial model integrates the action of each muscle or group of muscles as well as the propagation of their movement. A two-person conversation model will also be investigated to explore the roles of the listener and the speaker and how turn-taking is established facially and by gestures.
