FACIAL EXPRESSION ANALYSIS BY IMAGE PROCESSING

描述(申请人摘要)：面部表情交流 有关情绪反应的信息，并在 对人际行为的规范。当前基于人类观察者的方法 用于测量面部表情的是劳动密集型、定性和 很难跨实验室和随着时间的推移实现标准化。使 可行的更严格的、定量的面部表情测量 多样化的应用，我们成立了一个跨学科的研究小组， 涵盖面部表情分析和图像处理方面的专业知识。在 在融资期间，我们开发并演示了第一个版本的 用于测量数字化图像中的面部表情的自动化系统。这个 系统可区分上方九种FACS动作单元组合 以及下表面、量动作单元强度的时序和地形 并对图像序列进行几何归一化 平面外正负20度的范围。 在竞合更新中，我们将增加行动单位的数量 被识别的组合，实现 量化动作单元强度，提高动作泛化能力 对更大范围的图像方向进行单元估计，测试人脸图像 来自定向面部动作任务的图像序列中的处理(FIP)和 情绪调节的实验室研究，并促进整合 FIP整合到现有数据管理和统计分析软件中使用 由行为科学研究人员和临床医生提出。带着这些目标 完成后，FIP将不再需要人类观察者来编码面部 表达，促进标准化计量，使采集成为可能 和处理更大、更具代表性的数据集，并开辟新的领域 的研究和临床应用。

DESCRIPTION (Applicant's Abstract): Facial expression communicates information about emotional response and plays a critical role in the regulation of interpersonal behavior. Current human-observer based methods for measuring facial expression are labor intensive, qualitative, and difficult to standardize across laboratories and over time. To make feasible more rigorous, quantitative measurement of facial expression in diverse applications, we formed an interdisciplinary research group which covers expertise in facial expression analysis and image processing. In the funding period, we developed and demonstrated the first version of an automated system for measuring facial expression in digitized images. The system can discriminate nine combinations of FACS action units in the upper and lower face, quantity the timing and topography of action unit intensity in the brow region; and geometrically normalize image sequences within a range of plus or minus 20 degrees of out of-plane. In the competing renewal, we will increase the number of action unit combinations that are recognized, implement convergent methods of quantifying action unit intensity, increase the generalizability of action unit estimation to a wider range of image orientations, test facial image processing (FIP) in image sequences from directed facial action tasks and laboratory studies of emotion regulation, and facilitate the integration of FIP into existing data management and statistical analysis software for use by behavioral science researchers and clinicians. With these goals completed, FIP will eliminate the need for human observers in coding facial expression, promote standardize measurement, make possible the collection and processing of larger, more representative data sets, and open new areas of investigation and clinical application.