Research Article
Toward the Ideal Signing Avatar
@ARTICLE{10.4108/eai.15-6-2016.151446, author={Nicoletta Adamo-Villani and Saikiran Anasingaraju}, title={Toward the Ideal Signing Avatar}, journal={EAI Endorsed Transactions on e-Learning}, volume={3}, number={11}, publisher={EAI}, journal_a={EL}, year={2016}, month={6}, keywords={Sign Language Animation, Signing Avatars, Deaf Education}, doi={10.4108/eai.15-6-2016.151446} }- Nicoletta Adamo-Villani
Saikiran Anasingaraju
Year: 2016
Toward the Ideal Signing Avatar
EL
EAI
DOI: 10.4108/eai.15-6-2016.151446
Abstract
The paper discusses ongoing research on the effects of a signing avatar's modeling/rendering features on the perception of sign language animation. It reports a recent study that aimed to determine whether a character's visual style has an effect on how signing animated characters are perceived by viewers. The stimuli of the study were two polygonal characters presenting two different visual styles: stylized and realistic. Each character signed four sentences. Forty-seven participants with experience in American Sign Language (ASL) viewed the animated signing clips in random order via web survey. They (1) identified the signed sentences (if recognizable), (2) rated their legibility, and (3) rated the appeal of the signing avatar. Findings show that while character's visual style does not have an effect on subjects' perceived legibility of the signs and sign recognition, it has an effect on subjects' interest in the character. The stylized signing avatar was perceived as more appealing than the realistic one.
Copyright © 2016 N. Adamo-Villani and S. Anasingaraju, licensed to EAI. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), which permits unlimited use, distribution and reproduction in any medium so long as the original work is properly cited.
