Facial Expression Analysis is a methodology that measures the displayed or expressed emotions on an individual’s face.

Facial Expression Analysis is often used to test the impact of multimedia content, a product or service designed to trigger an emotional response of some kind.

It is often used in parallel with other methodologies like Eye Tracking to provide a comprehensive overview of the impact of an experience.

involves using facial movements and gestures to understand and interpret people’s emotions. This can be done manually by trained coders or automatically using computer algorithms that analyse facial expressions recorded through a webcam. This technique is often used to study people’s reactions to visual stimuli and to improve understanding of their emotions.

Facial expression analysis involves interpreting and analyzing the various facial movements and gestures that people use to communicate emotions and intentions. There are several different approaches to facial expression analysis, including:

1. Categorical approaches: These approaches assume that there are a limited number of basic emotions (e.g., happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise) that are universal and can be identified by specific facial expressions.

2. Dimensional approaches: These approaches assume that emotions are not distinct categories, but rather are continuous dimensions (e.g., valence, arousal) that can be represented by various combinations of facial movements and gestures.

3. Action unit approaches: These approaches analyze facial expressions by identifying the specific muscle movements that are involved in producing them.

Facial expression analysis can be done manually, by trained coders who observe and interpret facial expressions, or it can be done automatically, using computer algorithms and software programs that are designed to detect and classify facial expressions.

The Facial Action Coding System (FACS) refers to a set of facial muscle movements that correspond to a displayed emotion. Originally created by Carl-Herman Hjortsjö with 23 facial motion units in 1970, it was subsequently developed further by Paul Ekman, and Wallace Friesen. The FACS as we know it today was first published in 1978, but was substantially updated in 2002.

Facial Expression Analysis data is collected using a participant’s webcam or camera directed towards the face. 

This recording is passed through an algorithm that applies the Facial Coding to evaluate the various facial expressions and determine how they aggregate from Action Units into Emotional States.

Yes, we can collect Facial Expression Analysis data via a cloud-based testing service.

Remote data collection can be carried out in parallel with webcam Eye-Tracking, increasing the scalability and flexibility of the data collection process.