A Probabilistic Model of Motor Resonance for Embodied Gesture Perception

Sadeghipour A, Kopp S. A Probabilistic Model of Motor Resonance for Embodied Gesture Perception. In: Ruttkay Z, Kipp M, Nijholt A, Vilhjamsson H, eds. Intelligent Virtual Agents. Vol 5773. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; 2009: 90-103.Basic communication and coordination mechanisms of human social interaction are assumed to be mediated by perception-action links. These links ground the observation and understanding of others in one's own action generation system, as evidenced by immediate motor resonances to perceived behavior. We present a model to endow virtual embodied agents with similar properties of embodied perception. With a focus of hand-arm gesture, the model comprises hierarchical levels of motor representation (commands, programs, schemas) that are employed and start to resonate probabilistically to visual stimuli of a demonstrated movement. The model is described and evaluation results are provided