My research interests revolve around Human(Centred)-Computer Interaction with a strong emphasis on Socially Interactive Agents (in particular their nonverbal expressivity) and Video Games.

Some projects:

ATMOSPHERES

This project's objective is to develop a computational model of narrative tension for virtual reality storytelling. Within this project, with Anne-Gwenn Bosser and Nathalie Le Bigot, I co-supervise Gwendal Paton's PhD thesis on the developement of a computational model for controlling the affective expressivity of the virtual actors surrounding the spectators.

RunIt

This project's objective is to investigate how to elicit group motivation for running thanks to multi-device applications. Within this project, with Jean-Claude Martin and Xavier Sanchez, I co-supervise Gabriela Gomes's PhD thesis on understanding the articulation between different motivation theories applied to gamification.

CoMPhAR

This project's objective is to investigate how to maintain group cohesion during a collaborative game with artificial companions (robots and agents) by exploiting their nonverbal expressiveness. Within this project, with Julien Saunier, Céline Clavel and Nicolas Sabouret, I co-supervise Amine Benamara on the elaboration of the computational models.

Automatic Facial Animation

This project's objective is to develop of a new machine learning model of automatic facial animation (facial expressions and lip movements), synchronized with the audio of the virtual agent, capable of adapting the generation to express different social attitudes. Within this project, with Magalie Ochs, Nicolas Sabouret, Stéphane Ayache and Sébastien Biaudet, I co-supervise Alice Delbosc's PhD thesis on this topic.

PADME (completed)

This project's objective was to investigate how to take into account a user personnality to adapt interactions within a mobile application aimed at promoting physical activities. This project was the PhD thesis of David Rei, whom I co-supervised with Jean-Claude Martin and Céline Clavel.

ANR VirtuAlz (completed)

This project's objective was to develop of an innovative pedagogical software for healthcare professionals to train them on how to handle daily interactions with Alzheimer patients. Within this project, with Jean-Claude Martin and Elise Prigent, I co-supervised Amine Benamara's PhD thesis on the elaboration of a computational pathological model of emotions for a virtual patient.

ANR COPAINS (completed)

This project's objective was to develop a software assistant able to influence positively the motivation of users towards physical activities for health improvement. Within this project, with Nicolas Sabouret and Céline Clavel, we investigated the effect of motivational interviewing techniques and principles on a user's self-efficacy when applied in a human-computer interaction.

MIMETIC (completed)

This project's objective was to create a tangible interactive device aimed at training children with ASD to perform joint-actions. Within this project, with Jean-Claude Martin and Elise Prigent, I co-supervised Tom Giraud on the tracking of the tangible objects and on the visualization of the children's activities with the system.

ImCasting (completed)

This project's objective was to investigate the development of an immersive game environment designed to support the interactive training of motions for Socially Interactive Agents. Within this project, with Huyen Nguyen, I co-supervised Miriam Punzi's Master thesis who built and evaluated the first version of the system.