Will a facial expression recognizer help autistic kids?

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http://news.cnet.com/8301-27083_3-10377948-247.html

 

October 19, 2009 12:03 PM PDT

Will a facial expression recognizer help

autistic kids?

by

Armstrong

Computer scientists in Singapore are developing a system

that locates the face using derivative-based filtering and then calculates

which emotions are being expressed.

(Credit:

SeRVe61/Flickr)

Computer scientists at Nanyang Technological University in

Singapore are developing a system that could help autistic children identify

the emotions of those around them by first locating the edges of faces, then

finding crucial fiducial points to extract and

process features, and finally classifying those features into corresponding

emotions.

Their paper, " Towards a Portable Intelligent Facial Expression

Recognizer, " is available online through the journal Intelligent Decision Technologies

(Volume 3:3).

" Emotion is a state of feeling involving thoughts, physiological

changes, and an outward expression, " write the paper's authors, Teik-Toe

Teoh, Yok-Yen Nguwi and Siu-Yeung Cho of the Centre

for Computational Intelligence of the School of Computer Engineering

of Nanyang Technological University. " In this paper, we propose a system

that synergizes the use of derivative filtering and boosting classifier. "

One theory related to autism, developed in the 1980s and known as empathizing-systemizing, suggests

that autistic individuals can systemize (develop rules of operation to handle

events within the brain), but not always empathize (develop rules of operation

to handle events generated by external agents, i.e. another person's face).

Whether or not the portable device will effectively, efficiently, and

discreetly translate what is going on in the faces around autistic children (or

adults, or perhaps anyone who struggles with interpreting facial expressions)

remains to be seen. So does whether it helps with empathy, or whether a

significant number of people even want help in this area. We'll report back if

and when this hits the market.

In the meantime, the amateur poker player within me--and I cannot be the

only one curious about this--would love to see which emotions this device would

find.