Windows SDK for Facial Expression Detection!

Question

Hi,
I am new to Windows SDK, and working on a project that requires to detect facial expressions (mainly sad, happy). I found about Windows SDK, but not sure whether this will suits to my requirements.
Can I use it for Facial Expression Detection?
Thanks,
Dhaneshwar
Dhaneshwar

Answer 1

In the Kinect for Windows SDK 1.5 coupled with the Kinect for Windows Developer Toolkit 1.5.2, you can do basic face tracking (121 points are tracked).  There is no facial expression detection included, but a good starting place for writing your own
would be to look at the Animation Unit Coefficients returned by face tracking.  Once you have a face frame (see the FaceTrackingBasics-WPF sample for how to get face frames), you can find the AU Coefficients as follows:
// Assume frame variable contains a FaceTrackFrame.
EnumIndexableCollection<AnimationUnit, float> faceAUs =
frame.GetAnimationUnitCoefficients();
for (int index = 0; index < faceAUs.Count; ++index)
Debug.WriteLine(string.Format("{0}: {1} = {2}", index,
(AnimationUnit)index, faceAUs[index]));
which generates the following info in the debugger output window (your numbers will vary, of course):
0: LipRaiser = -0.0482193
1: JawLower = 0.2953424
2: LipStretcher = -0.587648
3: BrowLower = 0.05249858
4: LipCornerDepressor = 0.2725175
5: BrowRaiser = -0.2865464
Using these values, along with relative positions of selected points around the mouth and eye areas, it may be possible to detect facial expression patterns. Hope this helps.