Facial Coding and Emotion Detection

Our emotion detection software can capture emotional reactions in real-time with automatic facial expression analysis. The instrument does not have any annoying cables; you only need a webcam, and the results are intuitive to understand. Facial expression analysis is an ideal complement to conventional surveys in order to recognize emotional reactions that respondents are not consciously aware of, do not remember, or cannot or do not want to articulate. With automatic emotion detection, the creative process of producing a commercial can be objectively evaluated, facilitated and optimized.

Emotions are spontaneous reactions, for example, to commercials or products. And because emotions also always have a social function, they are reflected in facial expressions. This is how other people recognize what we are feeling at the moment.

The software can capture emotions in real-time without biases resulting from subsequent surveys or annoying cables. The only things required to find out the emotional reaction to a commercial or product are a webcam and Internet connection.

The software tracks important facial regions such as the eyes and corners of the mouth and interprets changes in these regions in terms of how agreeable or disagreeable the current experience is.

The NIM developed the software together with the Fraunhofer IIS in Erlangen and emotion psychologists at the University of Geneva. It recognizes the slightest changes in the face, measures the movements and correlates them on the pixel level with the facial expressions stored in the database.

In 2021, the software won the German Market Research Innovation Prize.