Communication and Automatic Interpretation of Affect from Facial Expressions

The objective of this chapter is to introduce the reader to the recent advances in computer processing of facial expressions and communicated affect. Human facial expressions have evolved in tandem with human face recognition abilities, and show remarkable consistency across cultures. Consequently, it is rewarding to review the main traits of face recognition in humans, as well as consolidated research on the categorization of facial expressions. The bulk of the chapter focuses on the main trends in computer analysis of facial expressions, sketching out the main algorithms and exposing computational considerations for different settings. The authors then look at some recent applications and promising new projects to give the reader a realistic view of what to expect from this technology now and in near future.