Objectifying Assessment of Human Emotional Processing and Expression of Clinical and Psychotherapy Applications (EMO-App) (IRP5)

Human beings process and express emotions in everyday interactions with others. Emotions are reflected on the face (via facial expression), in the voice (e.g. via arousal), and in hand and body gestures, to express our feelings in social interactions. Emotional functioning and dysfunctioning has been found to play a crucial role in the development and maintenance of psychopathology and many neurodegenerative disorders. Evidence is growing that in mental disorders such as depression, schizophrenia, autisms but also neurodegenerative disorders like Parkinson disease, dementia are associated with facial expression recognition and emotional processing problems. Due to this importance, psychologists and engineers alike have tried to analyze emotion processing, facial expressions, vocal emotions as well physiological signals in an attempt to understand and categorize these emotional processes and expressions (by "emotional expression" in this project we mean any outward expression that arises as a response to some stimulus event and emotional experience; these may include typical emotions such as anger, happiness, disgust etc., and expressions such as a smile to show that one is happy, or to show one likes what one sees or hears). This knowledge has been used by engineers for human computer interface applications to recognize users' emotions, from video images and from speech waveforms (Gunes, et al., 2010, Nicolaou, et al. 2011, Wang, Verhelst, & Sahli, 2011).) for applications where computers take on a 'social role' such as an "instructor," "tutor," or even "companion" (Picard, 1997), as well as applications such as irritation detection to support call center employees (Devillers, et al., 2003). In psychotherapy, this know-how is being used in the treatment and emotional support for autistic persons (Teeters, et al., 2006), stress detection (Mulder, et al., 2004), physical pain under relatively constrained conditions (Ashraf, 2009), depression (Reed, 2007; Jeffrey, et al., 2009), indication of therapy progress for psychologists (Van den Broek, 2004), assessing efficacy of therapeutic interventions in improving facial mobility in conditions such as Parkinson's Disease (Katsikitis & Pilowsky, 1996), and affective mental disorders (Tremeau, 2005).

Keywords:Low Power Cmos, Digital Image Processing, Numerical Linear Algebra, Embedded System Design, Image Reconstruction, Displays, Audio Processing, Light Detectors, Micro-Electronics Technology, Sige Bicmos Design, Satellite Image Analysis, Telemedicine, Medical Image Analysis, Inverse Problems, Video Compression, JPEGx, Neural Networks, Mine Detection, Vision, Digital Signal Processing, Electronic System Design, Machine Vision, Micro Electronics, Cmos Design, Chip Interconnects (Inter / Intra), Humanitarian Demining, Speech Processing, Mpegx, Light Emitters, Pattern Recognition, Mm-Wave Technology, Robot Vision, Impedance Tomography, Image Compression, Light Modulators, Computer Aided Electronic Design, Medical Image Visualization, Motion Estimation And Tracking, Opto-Electronics, Multispectral Image Analysis, Electronics, Computer Vision, Image Processing, Industrial Visual Inspection, Image Analysis

Disciplines:Optics, electromagnetic theory