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Recognizing facial expression: Machine learning and application to spontaneous behavior

  • Marian Stewart Bartlett
  • , Gwen Littlewort
  • , Mark Frank
  • , Claudia Lainscsek
  • , Ian Fasel
  • , Javier Movellan
    • University of California at San Diego

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

    545 Scopus citations

    Abstract

    We present a systematic comparison of machine learning methods applied to the problem of fully automatic recognition of facial expressions. We report results on a series of experiments comparing recognition engines, including AdaBoost, support vector machines, linear discriminant analysis. We also explored feature selection techniques, including the use of AdaBoost for feature selection prior to classification by SVM or LDA. Best results were obtained by selecting a subset of Gabor filters using AdaBoost followed by classification with Support Vector Machines. The system operates in real-time, and obtained 93% correct generalization to novel subjects for a 7-way forced choice on the Cohn-Kanade expression dataset. The outputs of the classifiers change smoothly as a function of time and thus can be used to measure facial expression dynamics. We applied the system to to fully automated recognition of facial actions (FACS). The present system classifies 17 action units, whether they occur singly or in combination with other actions, with a mean accuracy of 94.8%. We present preliminary results for applying this system to spontaneous facial expressions.

    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationProceedings - 2005 IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, CVPR 2005
    PublisherIEEE Computer Society
    Pages568-573
    Number of pages6
    ISBN (Print)0769523722, 9780769523729
    DOIs
    StatePublished - 2005
    Event2005 IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, CVPR 2005 - San Diego, CA, United States
    Duration: Jun 20 2005Jun 25 2005

    Publication series

    NameProceedings - 2005 IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, CVPR 2005
    VolumeII

    Conference

    Conference2005 IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, CVPR 2005
    Country/TerritoryUnited States
    CitySan Diego, CA
    Period06/20/0506/25/05

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