Perception of complex emotional body language of a virtual character with limb modifications

This abstract discusses a perceptual study investigating the perception of emotion in conversational body language. Specifically, we wished to determine the parts of the body most important for the identification of emotional expressions. We conducted a perceptual study using motion captured clips of an actor conducting a number of emotional conversations, exhibiting a set of emotions with negative connotations. These motions were represented on a virtual character, showing either the full body, or in the absence of the motion of arms, legs or head. Participants were then asked to indicate the level of presence of both the correct emotion and a corresponding positive pair (e.g., relaxed/stressed). We found participants were able to identify the emotions correctly, but depended strongly on the motions of the arms when doing so.