Identifying correlation between facial expression and heart rate and skin conductance with iMotions biometric platform

Jing Lei

Johannan Sala

Dr. Shashi Jasra

Abstract: Emotional reactions are stimulated when humans are presented with a stimulus, triggering a series of voluntary and involuntary responses. Human emotions can be measured from facial expressions and physiological processes. The iMotions biometric platform can detect and analyze the responses of different individuals, which are personalized. The iMotions software allows for the quantification of seven basic emotions: joy, sadness, anger, fear, contempt, surprise, and disgust. Along with iMotions, galvanic skin response (GSR) and heart rate sensors from the Shimmer Kit were used. GSR refers to the phenomenon wherein the skin temporarily becomes a better conductor of electricity due to elevated sweat gland activity. In this study, participants were shown videos associated with different emotions while their facial expressions were recorded, and their heart rate/skin conductance data collected. Using iMotions and the Shimmer kit, this project aims to identify a possible correlation between the participants’ facial reactions and their physiological responses, namely, their heart rate and skin conductance, when exposed to different stimuli. The results indicated that there is a slightly higher correlation between emotion and GSR compared to emotion and heart rate. From the findings, it can be inferred that individuals react differently to the same stimulus. The iMotions software has great potential in forensic biometric analysis of human emotions.

Keywords:

  • Biometrics
  • iMotions
  • Shimmer Kit
  • Facial expressions
  • Galvanic skin response (GSR)
  • Heart rate
  • Emotions
This publication uses Facial Expression Analysis and GSR which is fully integrated into iMotions Lab

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