INTERFACE is a Matlab©.tool for simplifying and
automating many of the operations needed for building a
talking head. INTERFACE consists of set of processing tools,
focusing on dynamic articulatory data physically extracted
by an automatic optotracking 3D movement analyzer. The
final aim of INTERFACE is that of building up the animation
engine of LUCIA our emotive/expressive Italian talking head.
LUCIA can be directly driven by an emotional XML tagged
input text, thus realizing a true audio visual expressive
synthesis. LUCIA's voice is based on an Italian version of
FESTIVAL-MBROLA packages, modified for expressive
synthesis by means of an appropriate APML/VSML tagged
language. Moreover, by using INTERFACE, it is possible to
copy a real human talking by recreating the correct WAV and
FAP files needed for the animation by reproducing the
movements of some markers positioned on his face and
recorded by an optoelectronic device. In this work the latest
improvements of INTERFACE will be described and few
examples of their application to real cases will be illustrated.
