Responsive Portraits

Flavia Sparacino, Nuria Oliver, Alex Pentland and Glorianna Davenport — MIT Media Lab

Presented at ISEA97, Chicago, September 1997.

Abstract

Modern techniques for high-resolution still image display offer new expressive possibilities for photographic portraiture and exhibition. "Responsive Portraits" challenge the notion of static photographic portraiture as the unique, ideal visual representation of its subject. Editors are usually confronted with choosing one ideal portrait from a limited set of pictures that all contribute to defining a character. In our view, the entire set of a subject's typical portraits should be kept for interactive exhibitions.

A responsive portrait consists of a multiplicity of views whose dynamic presentation results from the interaction between the viewer and the image. The viewer's proximity to the image, head movements, and facial expressions elicit dynamic responses from the portrait, driven by the portrait's own set of autonomous behaviors. This type of interaction reproduces an encounter between two people: the viewer and the character portrayed.

The sensing technology is a computer vision system that tracks the viewer's head movements and facial expressions as she interacts with the digital portrait — reversing the notion of "who is watching whom": the object becomes the subject, the subject is observed. Face recognition techniques allow the portrayed character to keep a record of previous encounters with a visitor and adjust its response based on the history of their interactions.

Publications

Responsive Portraits Flavia Sparacino, Nuria Oliver, Alex Pentland and Glorianna Davenport. ISEA97, Chicago, September 1997.