One debate among scholars, mainly in the social sciences, is whether facial gestures are emotion specific and inherent in our physiology, or whether they are socially learned and culturally variable. From about 1920 to the 1960s, the later was the popular notion and it was theorized that there was no fixed relation between making an expression and what it stood to signify. However, in the 70s, as a result of further exploration into study of the topic, it became more evident that, cross-culturally, the expressions made with the face can be interpreted as expressing certain types of emotion. Most studies analyzed gestures expressing enjoyment, anger, fear, sadness, disgust and surprise.
There was also concern with the difference between emotion-induced expression and a management of expressions in social context. Some studies between Americans and Japanese participants showed the same basic expressions induced by emotion, but that the expressions that were induced in a social context seemed to be more culturally influenced. For example, according to the study cited by Ekman, Japanese participants masked negative expressions with a smile more often than Americans when in the company of others.
The article also touches on the muscles in the face used to create each expression and the physiologically reactions measured from each facial gesture. It is promoted in this argument that there is a central connection between the facial muscles used and other areas in the brain directing the physiological changes that occur during emotion. It was noted that when emotion was 'faked' that certain muscles in the face that worked during emotion-induced gesture, did not move.
So just wondering your thoughts on this. I am thinking that more research and understanding must be done in this area of human expression and muscular/physiological reaction before a computer can come close to simulating it. Maybe, maybe not?
*UPDATE*
Dr. William McClure discusses the emotional development of the brain during our seminar panel:
4 comments:
I think that's a great question to ask during our panel.
Will 3d animation/motion capture become more convincing if we spend more time analyzing human psychology?
Do we have to be a neuroscientist to be a successful animator?
Why are simplified cartoons like Charlie Brown so successful?
Great research so far. See? Your anthropology background definitely brings a fresh perspective to animation.
By the way, check out Steven's link to the BBC's "Spot the Fake smile."
It's really hard.
A nursery-reared infant chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) was tested for the ability to imitate human facial gestures, following the procedure ofMeltzoff andMoore (1977). The subject was observed between 5 to 15 weeks of ages. The results showed that the subject could imitate tongue protrusion in the age of 5–10 weeks and mouth opening between the ages of 5–11 weeks. However, from 12 to 15 weeks, the infant did not imitate the facial gestures. The present study clearly demonstrated that the infant chimpanzee could imitate human facial gestures in a particular period.
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Mobin
promoter
Great video!
Thats excellent
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