Muscle-based modeling of facial dynamics during speech

Jorge C. Lucero and Kevin G. Munhall 
Dept. of Psych., Queen's Univ., Kingston, ON, Canada 

Eric Vatikiotis-Bateson 
ATR Human Information Processing Res. Labs., Kyoto, Japan 

Vincent L. Gracco 
Haskins Labs., New Haven, CT 06511-6695 

Demetri Terzopoulos 
Univ. of Toronto, Toronto, Canada 

A dynamical, muscle-based model of the face is being developed to
extend the facial model of Terzopoulos et al. [e.g., D. Terzopoulos
and K. Waters, IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Machine Intell. 15, 569ed by
a set of modeled muscles of facial expression whose physical
characteristics are being determined empirically. The shape of the
facial model is individualized to subjects facial morphology with data
from a laser ranger finder (Cyberware scanner). In this report, work
on driving the model with intramuscular, perioral EMG signals is
presented. Recordings of the sampled three-dimensional position of a
subject's facial surface using OPTOTRAK are compared to the patterns
of deformation of the epidermal mesh in the model. Results will be
discussed in terms of the strengths and weaknesses of this modeling
approach. [Work supported by NIH-NIDCD Grant No. DC-00594 and NSERC.]