1. Conclusions This method for the production of animacy displays is viable. Displays filmed from the TopView are more often rated as being self- propelled compared to those filmed from the SideView. Observers were able to reliably match animacy displays to given scenarios, though the ability to do so would appear to be affected by Viewpoint. Towards Canonical Views of Animacy from Scenes of Human Action 1 Phil McAleer, 2 Barbara Mazzarino, 1 Helena Paterson, 1 Frank E. Pollick 1 Department of Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, 2 Infomus Lab, D.I.S.T, University of Genova, Genova, Italy phil@psy.gla.ac.uk It is well known that social intention and meaning can be attributed to displays of moving geometric shapes, yet the cognitive processes that underlie this perception of animacy are still open to debate. Heider and Simmel (1944) showed that people, on viewing a simple animation involving geometric shapes (a disc, a large triangle and a small triangle), would attribute emotions and intentions to the shapes based on their movements. Further experiments have used the technique of varying simple mathematical relationships of the motion of the shapes to create new displays. Our previous research introduced a new method to create animacy displays directly from human motion, (McAleer et al. 2004). We continue to use the method to examine the perception of animacy and in doing so we investigate the question, whether the perception of animacy is viewpoint dependent. Introduction Actors were filmed performing various movements and interactions on a 10ft square stage. The original footage was captured using two digital video cameras: one positioned directly above center stage, TopView; the second positioned inline with the center of the side of the stage, SideView. The X and Y co-ordinates were then extracted from the footage using the EyesWeb open platform for multimedia production and motion analysis, which tracks the centre of mass of the silhouette image for each respective person. (www.eyesweb.org). These co-ordinates were filtered to reduce noise and used to create QuickTime movies depicting white disk(s) on a black background. Stimulus Production TopView Versus SideView Methods 16 scenarios were created: 13 scenarios involved interactions between 2 people, such as chasing, following, walking, and playing. 3 scenarios showed just one person walking or jogging. 10 subjects ran 3 blocks – 1 block shows all 16 scenarios from both Viewpoints. Subjects were asked for a rating of self propulsion for each display, on a scale of 1 to 9: 1 – the disks in the display were not self-propelled. 9 – the disks in the display were self-propelled. Top Real Disks Side Results There was a significant effect of Viewpoint. F(1,9) = 9.276, p<0.05 Displays filmed from a TopView (mean = 5.563) were more often rated as being self-propelled than those filmed from a SideView (mean = 4.438). Blythe, Todd & Miller (1999) provide evidence for 6 basic scenarios in human life that are at the root of all animacy displays: chasing, courting, fighting, following, guarding, and playing. We tested subjects to see if they could determine which scenario was which and also, if these scenarios were more salient depending on the viewpoint they were filmed from. Basic Human Scenarios Methods 2 actors performed 5 examples of each scenario. 1 example of each scenario was selected and both viewpoints of the same scenario were used. Subjects were shown each display and using a 6AFC (fight, guard, follow, chase, play & flirt), asked to chose the verb that best described the action. Results Ability to correctly differentiate the scenarios was above chance level for all scenarios at both Viewpoints. For Fight, Play and Flirt the ability would appear to be independent of viewpoint. Guard, Chase and Follow were better recognised from the TopView. References Blythe, P.W., Todd, P.M., and Miller, G.F. (1999). Judging intention from motion: Basic mechanisms for social rationality. In G. Gigerenzer, P.M. Todd, and the ABC Research Group, Simple heuristics that make us smart. New York: Oxford University Press. Heider, F., & Simmel, M., An Experimental Study of Apparent Behavior, American Journal of Psychology, 57:2, (1944). McAleer, P., Mazzarino, B., Volpe, G., Camurri, A., Patterson, H., & Pollick, F. (2004). Perceiving Animacy and Arousal in Transformed Displays of Human Interaction. Journal of Vision, 4(8), 230a, helena: