Simulation of Turkish lip motion and facial expressions in a 3D environment and synchronization with a Turkish speech engine

3D animation of human facial expressions and lip motion and their synchronization with a Turkish speech engine using the Java programming languages, Java3D API and Java Speech API, is analyzed. A three-dimensional animation model for simulating Turkish lip motion and facial expressions is developed. In addition to lip motion, synchronization with a Turkish speech engine is achieved. The output of the study is facial expressions and Turkish lip motion synchronized with Turkish speech, where the input is Turkish text in Java Speech Mark-up Language (JSML) format, also indicating expressions. The animation is created using Java3D API. 3D facial models corresponding to different lip positions of the same person are morphed to each other to construct the animation. Moreover, simulations of human facial expressions of emotions are created within the animation. An expression weight parameter is introduced. The synchronization of lip motion with Turkish speech is achieved via the Java Speech API interface of CloudGarden® (www.cloudgarden.com). The "Levent16k SAPI 4-5 Male Voice" of the GVZ Voice Technologies software firm (www.gvz.com.tr) was used for the Turkish speech engine. A virtual Turkish speaker with facial expression of emotions is created for Java3D animation.