Perception of Emotional Gaits Using Avatar Animation of Real and Artificially Synthesized Gaits

The emotional component of human walking patterns can be characterized by a limited set of kinematic cues [8]. Here, we tested whether artificial synthesis of emotional gaits based on these cues can facilitate emotion perception in human observers. To this purpose, we recorded neutral gaits and artificially modified the walking speed, the upper-body posture or some combination thereof. Nave observers had to judge emotion conveyed by these animated avatars or by real emotional gaits recorded in professional actors. We found that the recognition rates of both animated and real movies were comparable and particularly high (e.g. > 85 %): all emotions but fear were unambiguously perceived in walking avatars thanks to a particular combination of walking speed and head/trunk posture. This reveals a strong coupling between motor and perceptual processes underlying emotion expression and recognition. The potential applications of these findings in the fields of animated motion picture and humanoid robotics are discussed.