Facial Affect

The display of emotion through facial movements, including changes in the position of the eyebrows, eyes, mouth, and other facial features that communicate a person's emotional or mental state. Facial affect is a primary channel of nonverbal social communication and can convey states such as happiness, sadness, anger, confusion, agreement, and interest. Many individuals with autism spectrum disorders experience significant difficulty recognizing and interpreting facial affect in real-time social interactions, which can be a major barrier to effective communication. Assistive technologies using computer vision and affective computing can help by automatically analyzing facial movements and presenting interpretations in accessible formats.