System and method for triggering animated paralingual behavior from dialogue

1. A method for triggering animated paralingual behavior from dialogue, the method executed on at least one processor of a computing device, the method comprising:

receiving at least a portion of a corpus of dialogue, the corpus of dialogue comprising a plurality of samples, each sample comprising dialogue with aligned sequences of phonemes or sub-phonemes;

extracting properties of measured quantities for each sample;

generating a statistical profile by statistically classifying the extracted properties as a function of each sequence of phonemes or sub-phonemes;

receiving a stream of phonemes or sub-phonemes and triggering paralingual behavior when the properties of any of the phonemes or sub-phonemes deviate from the statistical profile beyond a predetermined threshold;

outputting the triggered paralingual behavior for animation.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein when the properties of any of the phonemes or sub-phonemes deviate from the statistical profile beyond a predetermined threshold comprises determining standard deviation between the phonemes or sub-phonemes and the statistical profile and triggering paralingual behavior when the standard deviation is above the predetermined threshold.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the degree of statistical deviation is correlated with a degree of modulation for the paralingual behavior.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the measured quantities comprise at least one of quantity, mean, maximum, minimum, and standard deviation.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the properties comprise at least one of phonemes, vowels, consonants, sonorants, fricatives, plosives, intensity, pitch, and duration.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the properties further comprise at least one of shimmer, jitter, duration, and overtones.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein each property is analyzed separately and the deviation from the statistical profile of each property is used to trigger a separate respective paralingual behavior.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving the predetermined threshold from a user.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein outputting the triggered paralingual behavior further comprises determining and outputting animation curves for the triggered paralingual behavior that alter geometry of an animated character from a current state to the triggered paralingual behavior, hold the paralingual behavior for a period of time, and alter the geometry of the animated character back to a state prior to the paralingual behavior.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein triggering the paralingual behavior comprises selecting a paralingual behavior from a database of potential paralingual behaviors.

11. A system for triggering animated paralingual behavior from dialogue, the system having one or more processors and a data storage device, the one or more processors in communication with the data storage device, the one or more processors configured to execute:

an input module to receive at least a portion of a corpus of dialogue, the corpus of dialogue comprising a plurality of samples, each sample comprising dialogue with aligned sequences of phonemes or sub-phonemes;

an analysis module to extract properties of measured quantities for each sample and generate a statistical profile by statistically classifying the extracted properties as a function of each sequence of phonemes or sub-phonemes;

a synthesis module to trigger paralingual behavior based on a stream of phonemes or sub-phonemes received by the input module when the properties of any of the phonemes or sub-phonemes deviate from the statistical profile beyond a predetermined threshold; and

an output module to output the triggered paralingual behavior for animation.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein when the properties of any of the phonemes or sub-phonemes deviate from the statistical profile beyond a predetermined threshold comprises determining standard deviation between the phonemes or sub-phonemes and the statistical profile and triggering paralingual behavior when the standard deviation is above the predetermined threshold.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the degree of statistical deviation is correlated with a degree of modulation for the paralingual behavior.

14. The system of claim 11 , wherein the measured quantities comprise at least one of quantity, mean, maximum, minimum, and standard deviation.

15. The system of claim 11 , wherein the properties comprise at least one of phonemes, vowels, consonants, sonorants, fricatives, plosives, intensity, pitch, and duration.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the properties further comprise at least one of shimmer, jitter, duration, and overtones.

17. The system of claim 11 , wherein each property is analyzed separately and the deviation from the statistical profile of each property is used to trigger a separate respective paralingual behavior.

18. The system of claim 11 , wherein the input module further receives the predetermined threshold from a user.

19. The system of claim 11 , wherein the synthesis module further determines animation curves for the triggered paralingual behavior that alter geometry of an animated character from a current state to the triggered paralingual behavior, hold the paralingual behavior for a period of time, and alter the geometry of the animated character back to a state prior to the paralingual behavior, and wherein the output module outputs the animation curves.

20. The system of claim 11 , wherein triggering the paralingual behavior comprises selecting a paralingual behavior from a database of potential paralingual behaviors.