According to scientists, it is possible that computers understand human emotional state. The algorithm allowing computers to recognize real person’s emotions and feelings will be used in fields such as biomedicine, law enforcement and computer science.
Professor Lijun Yin from Binghamton University, State University of New York, leads research in computer graphics, computer vision and face expression recognition. He works on automatic linking of human facial expressions with adequate emotions felt by humans. It is not so easy as it may seem at first, because expression is not equal to emotion. Expressions are manifested outside human bodies, whilst emotions are experienced inside.
In collaboration with psychologist Peter Gerhardstein, professor Yin created a 3D facial expression database, which includes 2,500 facial expression models. The database has become a worldwide test bed for those working on related projects in fields such as biomedicine, law enforcement and computer science.
The database contains people’s six basic emotions (i.e. joy, anger, surprise, disgust, sadness, fear) and on its basis researchers want to go beyond a standard facial analysis. According to them, it is possible that computers recognize a user’s emotional state on the basis of subtle, intuitive and intelligent analysis of face expressions. They want to find an algorithm that would enable a computer to determine human emotion based on a photograph.
