• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.804-814
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• 2009

In this paper, a novel system for avatar motion controlling by tracking face is presented. The system is composed of three main parts: firstly, LCS (Local Cluster Searching) method based face feature detection algorithm, secondly, HMM based feature points recognition algorithm, and finally, avatar controlling and animation generation algorithm. In LCS method, face region can be divided into many small piece regions in horizontal and vertical direction. Then the method will judge each cross point that if it is an object point, edge point or the background point. The HMM method will distinguish the mouth, eyes, nose etc. from these feature points. Based on the detected facial feature points, the 3D avatar is controlled by two ways: avatar orientation and animation, the avatar orientation controlling information can be acquired by analyzing facial geometric information; avatar animation can be generated from the face feature points smoothly. And finally for evaluating performance of the developed system, we implement the system on Window XP OS, the results show that the system can have an excellent performance.

• Proceedings of the Korea Contents Association Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.229-236
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• 2005

This paper is study about emotional Interactive avatar in cellular phone. When user ask what he want to the avatar, it answer with facial expression based on animation Charac- ter. So the user can approach more friendly to the avatar.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.17 no.9
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• pp.1076-1083
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• 2014

We propose an emotional facial avatar that portrays the user's facial expressions with an emotional emphasis, while achieving visual and behavioral realism. This is achieved by unifying automatic analysis of facial expressions and animation of realistic 3D faces with details such as facial hair and hairstyles. To augment facial appearance according to the user's emotions, we use emotional templates representing typical emotions in an artistic way, which can be easily combined with the skin texture of the 3D face at runtime. Hence, our interface gives the user vision-based control over facial animation of the emotional avatar, easily changing its moods.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.20
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• pp.47-61
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• 2010

The Uncanny Valley is a hypothesis introduced by a roboticist, Masahiro Mori. The theory holds that as robots and other facsimiles of humans look and act more human-like, the emotional response from a human spectator to them will become increasingly empathic, until they approach realistic similarity to humans but not quite exactly like them, when those images stop being likable and instead become repulsive and "uncanny." Although the scientific validity of this hypothesis is still debatable, it is true that many spectators has tendency to reject hyper-realistic animation. For that reason, the great success of the recent movie Avatar is remarkable. Computer animations that try to represent humans in hyper-realistic way fall into a paradox: successful result images would look too mundane and unsuccessful ones look "wrong". On top of that, audience would expect from hyper-realistic animation to see same level of acting of live-action films, which is usually not the case. The subtle differences between digital characters and real actors irritate spectators and hinder them in absorbtion. The biggest difference between Avatar and other hyper-realistic animation is the referent of their representation. While Avatar pursues a similar hyper-realistic visual style, the referents of the representation shown in this movie are totally alien to us thus impossible to compare with the real counterparts. Unlike characters in other hyper-realistic animations who had to fight an uphill battle with great actors in real life, those in Avatar have criteria of their own. That is why this movie can be free from the dreadful valley and let the audience absorb into the spectacle.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.24
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• pp.155-172
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to analyze the gesture features on the personalities of Navi characters in . In order to analyze the personality type of characters, the study applied the classification of Enneagram based on script of . The character features are classified according to character types, then the metaphorical character of the expression is obtained through gesture analysis in . Thus, it is possible to set up characters that fit its personalities in Contents of digital image. Also this study suggests creation of attractive characters and expression methods with gesture based personality.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.6
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• pp.152-171
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• 2002

This study analyses the avatar service, which is recognized as an alternative strategy of animation industry. The research questions of this study are following: (1) How have the avatar services been developed and what are the present dominant types? (2) Which structural characteristics of e-business environment are needed for the success of avatar services? (3) What is the economic characteristics of avatar business model? To solve these research questions, the basic conditions and the structural characteristics of avatar services have been investigated. In the first place, two forms of avatar service are classified. One is the internet service site whole primary service is to provide chatting service based on avatar service. The other is the portal site in which many kinds of products and services are presented as bundles to meet the needs of internet users. So avatar service is one of bundles which those portal sites are providing with. In this study, the big five internet service sites are selected based on the profits they earned through the sales of avatar service. The result of analysis is that the pricing strategy of those big five sites is very different from those of traditional off-line markets. The pricing mechanism are based on the value which internet users endow with the avatar items, not based on the costs of making the products. Avatar is the representative informative goods. The informative goods have the original cost structures, constant fixed costs and zero marginal costs, so the providers of avatar services make much of the subjective values of consumers. The sayclub, which is the most successful avatar service site and earn the average sales of 3 billing won a month, takes the aggressive strategy of pricing avatar items at highest price in the industry. The avatar service providers which make lots of profits are planning of making differentiate the services, introducing well-known brand items and star-named items. Nevertheless, the fact that the members of the sayclub are not decreasing means that the network effect of the site is so strongly manifest. Moreover, the costs the members have paid for the avatar items are so big not as to switch from one site to the other site, it can be very costly. These switching costs are endemic in high-technology industries and digital contents industries. It can be so large that switching suppliers is virtually unthinkable, a situation known as 'lock-in'. When switching costs are substantial, competition can be intense to attract new customers, since, one they are locked in, they can be a substantial source of profit. The consumers of avatar items have switching costs if they subscribe for the new avatar service site. The switching costs can be subscription costs as well as the costs of giving up the items they already paid for. One common example of switching costs involves specialized supplies, as with inkjet printer cartridges. In this example, the switching cost is the purchase of a new printer. The market is competitive ex ante, but since cartridges are incompatible, it is monopolized dx post. So the providers of printer/cartridges set pricing printer so cheap and cartridges expensive. On the contrary, since the avatar service can be successful with the strong network effect, the providers of avatar services have to compete aggressively for new customers. So they allow the subscription at a low price(almost marginal cost) in the early market. The network effect can be maximized when the members are sufficiently growing. The providers which have the monopoly power with sufficient subscribers. begin to raise the prices over the lifetime of the product and make profits.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2003.07d
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• pp.1673-1676
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• 2003

As a means of overcoming the linguistic barrier in the Internet cyberspace, recently a couple of studies on intelligent avatar communications between avatars of different languages such as Japanese-Korean have been performed. In this paper we measure the generation time of facial expressions on different avatar models in order to consider avatar models to be available in real-time system. We also provide a short overview about DTD (Document Type Definition) to deliver the facial and gesture animation parameters between avatars as an XML data.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.212-218
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• 2005

These days, mobile technology is developing very fast. It has increased the usage of the Internet by mobile phones. Nowadays the avatar and game contents services are most popular in mobile phones using the Internet. In this paper, we propose a Client/Server system to combine the animation avatar and e-mail services on SK-VM which are different from simple avatar services. The server which consists of DB (database) module and mail management module is designed in order to manage the information about avatar and the user. The client is designed so as to show the email contents and avatar animation on the mobile phone. This model is intended to reduce the performance overhead on the client as much as possible. We expect that this module would be useful in the mobile phones with limited resources, although the technology is being developed very rapidly.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2000.11d
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• pp.227-230
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• 2000

The sign-language can be used as an auxiliary communication means between avatars of different languages in cyberspace. At that time, an intelligent communication method can also be utilized to achieve real-time communication, where intelligently coded data (joint angles for arm gestures and action units for facial emotions) are transmitted instead of real pictures. In this paper, a method of generating the facial gesture CG animation on different avatar models is provided. At first, to edit emotional expressions efficiently, a comic-style facial model having only eyebrows, eyes, nose, and mouth is employed. Then generation of facial emotion animation with the parameters is also investigated. Experimental results show a possibility that the method could be used for the intelligent avatar communications between Korean and Japanese.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2001.06c
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• pp.121-124
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• 2001

In this paper, a method of generating the facial gesture CG animation on different avatar models is provided. At first, to edit emotional expressions efficiently, regeneration of the comic expression on different polygonal mesh models is carried out, where the movements of the cheeks and numerical methods. Experimental results show a possibility that the method could be used for intelligent avatar communications between Korea and Japan.