Avatar for Credibility Assessment Implementation

The facial features, skin color, or voice pitch of an interviewer may affect the results of an interview. However, research to improve credibility assessment by mitigating gender and cultural biases has been difficult-no two live interviews can be identical, even with the same interviewer and interview script. To enable systematic studies of these multiple variables, Battelle developed a computer generated three-dimensional avatar of a human head. The Avatar for Credibility Assessment Implementation software enables an interviewer to create a fully-customizable avatar and script an interview, including the details of the avatar's appearance, voice, speech, and gestures, through an easy-to-use graphical interface. Avatar's use of a single-base mesh modified with overlays and shades provides avatar-independent pseudo-real-time animation and co-articulation effects. The software can interpret a subject's yes and no verbal answers, conduct a branching interview based upon them, and log each query and response for later detailed analysis. Requests for additional information about the Avatar tool should be sent to avatar@battelle.org.