@TechReport{Dartmouth:TR2004-501,
  author = {William Pechter},
  title = {{Synchronizing Keyframe Facial Animation to Multiple Text-to-Speech Engines and  Natural Voice with Fast Response Time}},
  institution = {Dartmouth College, Computer Science},
  address = {Hanover, NH},
  number = {TR2004-501},
  year = {2004},
  month = {June},
  URL = {http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/reports/TR2004-501.pdf},
  comment = {
    Senior Honors Thesis.  Advisors: Lorie Loeb, Hany Farid, and Stephen Linder
  },
  abstract = {
    This thesis aims to create an automated lip-synchronization system for real-time applications.  Specifically, the system is required to be fast, consist of a limited number of keyframes with small memory requirements, and create fluid and believable animations that synchronize with text-to-speech engines as well as raw voice data. 
      The algorithms utilize traditional keyframe animation and a novel method of keyframe selection.  Additionally, phoneme-to-keyframe mapping, synchronization, and simple blending rules are employed.  The algorithms provide blending between keyframe images, borrow information from neighboring phonemes, accentuate phonemes b, p and m, differentiate between keyframes for phonemes with allophonic variations, and provide prosodromic variation by including emotion while speaking.  The lip-sync animation synchronizes with multiple synthesized voices and human speech.  A fast and versatile online real-time java chat interface is created to exhibit vivid facial animation.
      Results show that the animation algorithms are fast and show accurate lip-synchronization.  Additionally, surveys showed that the animations are visually pleasing and improve speech understandability 96% of the time.  Applications for this project include internet chat capabilities, interactive teaching of foreign languages, animated news broadcasting, enhanced game technology, and cell phone messaging.
  }
}