Collaborative Proposal: Automated Measurement of Infant Facial Expressions and Human Ratings of Their Emotional Intensity

婴儿的微笑可以预测以后的适应功能，但对婴儿微笑的时间过程或他们感知到的情绪强度知之甚少。这个合作项目结合了基于计算机的婴儿微笑测量和父母对这些微笑的评分。该项目的目标是了解婴儿是如何微笑的，并记录婴儿微笑的特征，使他们看起来更快乐或更不快乐。为了了解婴儿是如何微笑的，将使用计算机软件（CMU/Pitt自动面部图像分析，v. IV）测量50个6个月大婴儿的微笑强度和同时出现的张嘴。这些客观的测量将被用来记录婴儿的微笑是如何形成的，达到顶峰，并随着时间的推移而消失。也就是说，我们将创建微笑的实时画像，以更全面地了解积极的情绪功能。微笑强度和张开嘴之间的统计关联将被研究，以及微笑和婴儿之间的差异——微笑的这些组成部分的关联程度。互补的图形和统计方法将鼓励情感功能的动态描述和情感在学习和发展中的作用的新研究途径。该项目使用评级研究来记录婴儿微笑的特征，这些特征使婴儿的微笑显得更快乐或更不快乐。婴儿和大学生的父母将被要求对静止图像和微笑视频片段的情感强度进行评分。然后，微笑强度和张嘴的自动测量将用于预测积极情绪强度的评级。积极的发现将验证婴儿微笑的特定特征作为婴儿快乐情绪强度指数的自动测量。在这个项目中，领先的婴儿情绪研究人员将与一个尖端的自动面部测量团队合作，调查婴儿的微笑。婴儿使用积极的面部表情来表达情绪和与他人交流。对体内婴儿情绪表达的时间过程的基本知识保证了对规范和妥协的情绪功能和发展的客观看法。为此，获得的数字化面部表情数据库及其自动测量将提供给请求调查人员。这些客观的描述将被父母和天真的观察者对这些表情的情感强度的感知所补充。这将验证自动测量的情感意义，并有助于开发具有广泛影响潜力的自动编码工具。

Infant smiles can predict later adaptive functioning, but little is known about the temporal course of infant smiles or their perceived emotional intensity. This collaborative project combines computer-based measurements of infant smiles with parents' ratings of those smiles. The project goals are to understand how infants smile, and to document the features that make infant smiles appear more or less joyful. To understand how infants smile, the smile strength and co-occurring mouth opening of 50 six-month-old infants' smiles will be measured using computer software (CMU/Pitt Automated Facial Image Analysis, v. IV). These objective measurements will be used to document how infant smile form, peak, and dissolve in time. That is, we will create real-time portraits of smiles to more fully understand positive emotional functioning. Statistical associations between smile strength and mouth opening will be examined, as will differences - both between smiles and between infants - in how strongly these components of smiles are associated. Complementary graphical and statistical approaches will encourage dynamic accounts of emotional functioning and new avenues of research on the role of emotion in learning and development. The project uses rating studies to document features that make infant smiles appear more or less joyful. Both parents of infants and undergraduates will be asked to rate the emotional intensity of both still images and video clips of smiles. Automated measurements of smile strength and mouth opening will then be used to predict ratings of positive emotional intensity. Positive findings would validate automated measurements of specific features of infant smiles as indices of infant joyful emotional intensity. In this project, leading infant emotion researchers will collaborate with a cutting-edge automated facial measurement team to investigate infants' smiles. Infants use positive facial expressions to express emotions and communicate with others. Basic knowledge of the temporal course of in vivo infant emotional expressions promises an objective view of normative and compromised emotional functioning and development. To that end, the acquired database of digitized facial expressions and their automated measurements will be made available to requesting investigators. These objective descriptions will be complemented by parental and naive observers' perceptions of the emotional intensity of these expressions. This will validate the emotional significance of the automated measurements, and contribute to the development of a tool for automated coding that has the potential for broad impact.