The computer-generated image on the left can make this woman’s reflection smile.
(Credit: Video screenshot by Leslie Katz/CNET)
Smiling (even when it’s a forced grin) can reduce stress and improve your mood, recent research indicates. But do you still get those boosts with a computer-generated smile?
Building on the idea that physiological changes can generate psychological ones, Japanese researchers have developed a setup that creates “computer-generated emotion by letting people recognize pseudo-generated facial expressions as changes to their own facial expressions.”
In other words, the “Emotion Evoking System” can make it look like that reflection of yourself you see in the mirror is smiling or frowning when you’re not, thus potentially altering your mood when you take a gander at the looking glass.
Developed by Shigeo Yoshida and his colleagues at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies, the setup consists of a camera and a display. The camera captures and tracks users’ faces, transforming their expressions in real time using an image-processing technique that can do things like turn the corners of the mouth up or down and change the configuration of the area around the eyes.
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