Autists Smart glasses recognize feelings

Recognize emotions: Smart glasses should help autistic people

02/17/2015

Around 100 emotions can express people's face. People who suffer from autism, however, can often find it difficult to assess others' feelings. Software developed by German researchers could help autists in the future.

Data glasses can detect basic emotions
Most people can often tell at a glance if someone is looking sad or happy, upset or surprised. Autists, however, find this extremely difficult. It usually takes a long time to learn what a smile or a frown means. As reported by the news agency dpa, software from the Fraunhofer Institute in Erlangen could make everyday life easier for autistic people. This shows - built into a data glasses - the wearer not only whether his counterpart is a woman or a man and his approximate age. But the program can also recognize and display basic emotions.

Programs are pretty correct for basic emotions
This is shown, for example, by a smile next to the word „Happy“ (Happy) a red bar. If the mouth is formed into an O and the eyes are ripped open, the beam should „Surprised“ (Surprised) turn down. As it is said, the whole thing does not work perfectly, but the Fraunhofer software „Shore“ (Sophisticated high speed object recognition engine) and similar programs are at least in the so-called basic emotions anger, grief, fear, joy, surprise and disgust quite correct. „Studies have shown that these are displayed correctly in about 90 percent of cases“, so the Berlin emotion researcher Isabel Dziobek. This is amazing, because „People can express about 100 emotions in the face“, as the psychologist explains.

Software is used for advertising research
Jens Garbas from the Fraunhofer Institute in Erlangen and his team have been working on the software for around ten years. The principle behind it is machine learning. The program was fed with over 30,000 sample images and related information. The software is already being used by consumer researchers for advertising impact and market research. For example, it records how people react to a spot. And in shops, such programs are used to find out whether women or men are more likely to come in, what their customers are, what time of day they are coming from, or how customers are doing business. As Garbas explains, submit here a video surveillance sign as a clue. „The mere evaluation here is a lesser intervention than if the data were stored.“ Even on the viewer responsive display advertising, there are the questions like „They look so sad. Should I tell you a joke? put.

With real smile more muscles are active
„The software could be used anywhere people interact with machines“, so Garbas. Or in the security area, if you want to record, „which middle attitude has a crowd“. The software should be able to distinguish between emotions more and more finely, so the goal. For example, if a smile is real or played. In the former, wrinkles appear around the eyes and more muscles are active. Friedrich Nolte from the Federal Association for the Advancement of People with Autism also considers the new idea of ​​playing the software on data glasses and thus of using it for autistics to be sensible. For example, such glasses can help those affected by appointments with strangers: „If you do not know people, it's harder to gauge their feelings.“

Recognize emotions with the help of exercise programs
The glasses are still a crutch. According to Nolte, it would be better to teach autistics with exercise programs to recognize emotions themselves. „Learning a language is of course better than having a simultaneous translator standing by“, so the expert. Isabel Dziobek works on such programs. According to the information, one can train with the software to recognize 40 feelings. The emotions of 70 actors were portrayed in almost 8,000 video and audio sequences. Dziobek says that the software should not only train autistic people, but also people in customs, police or nursing professions who need to be particularly sensitive. Fraunhofer researcher Garbas sees no privacy issues: „The whole calculation takes place in the device, and the information is stored without reference to the person.“ So people are not identified. Since no data leaves the glasses, sees Miriam Meder of the Bavarian State Office for Data Protection Supervision little problems. However, it is said that under certain conditions a consent of the users is necessary.

Autism is innate and incurable
Autism is usually described as a congenital, incurable brain cognitive and information processing disorder. Autism is neither curable, nor are the exact causes of the developmental disorder known. According to experts, symptoms and individual characteristics can range from mild behavioral problems to severe mental disabilities. What is common to all autistic disabilities is an impairment of social behavior, such as difficulty talking to other people or using facial expressions and body language. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), autism is one of the most profound neurological developmental disorders. (Ad)