The temporal and semantic structure of dynamic conversational facial expressions

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Douglas W. Cunningham
• Subject Area: General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology
• Term: from 2010 to 2014
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 168575988

• Final Report Year: 2016

Final Report Abstract

This project examined the structure of expressions, both at a semantic level (the perception of meaning) and at a physical level (in the form of facial expressions). A considerably amount of structure at both level was found, the details of which are reported in a series of scientific publication. The two sets of structure were mapped to each other. This not only provides insight into the perception and representation of emotions and other expressions, but also how these are produced. The process involved the creation of a new facial expression database using motion capture technology. The project also had the unexpected and very interesting result that personality seems to also be encoded in specific facial motions, and that personality structure is at least partially represented as systematic variations in semantic space. A number of elements of the project have lead to scientific publications as well as follow-up work.

Publications

• (2014): The semantic space for facial communication. Comp. Anim. Virtual Worlds, 25: 223-231
  Castillo, S., Wallraven, C. and Cunningham, D. W.
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1002/cav.1593)
• The semantic space for facial communication. International Conference on Computer Animation and Social Agents (CASA), 26.05.2014 in University of Houston
  Castillo, S., Wallraven, C. and Cunningham, D. W.
  
• The Temporal and Semantic Structure of Dynamic Conversational Facial Expressions, Hi-Graphics, 15.03.2014 in Hirschegg-Kleinwalsertal
  Castillo Alejandre, S.
  
• Exploring and Travelling the Emospace with mocap data, Hi-Graphics, 16.03.2015 in Hirschegg-Kleinwalsertal
  Castillo Alejandre, S.
  
• Connecting the semantics of faces (and of personality) to the spatiotemporal structures of face motion, Workshop on Detection of Pain in Facial Expressions, 19.02.2016 in University of Bamberg
  Castillo Alejandre, S.
  
• Perceptual research on facial expressions, Workshop on Detection of Pain in Facial Expressions, 19.02.2016 in University of Bamberg
  Cunningham, D. W.
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.visres.2016.08.005)