Expressive Image Generator for an Emotion Extraction Engine

We report an expressive image generator suitable for an emotion extraction engine which we have developed for a real-time Internet text communication system. Real-time expressive communication provides aspects of the visual clues that are present in face-to-face interaction. We have demonstrated an engine that can analyse the emotional content of text input and can deliver the emotional parameters necessary to invoke an appropriate expressive image in a real-time chat environment. The engine requires a set of emotionally expressive images from each participant for the display of emotions. The aim of this paper is to present a fast and user-friendly method to automatically generate the set of expressive images from a single default image. Using a combination of warping and morphing, images belonging to six expressive categories are generated from one original neutral image provided by each user. In each expressive category, three different intensities can be depicted. The method only requires a single default image per user, six control points and two control shapes. In a series of experiments we have tested the effectiveness of the generated images. The preliminary findings are also presented in this paper.