A Review on EEG Signals Based Emotion Recognition

Emotion recognition has become a very controversial issue in brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). Moreover, numerous studies have been conducted in order to recognize emotions. Also, there are several important definitions and theories about human emotions. In this paper we try to cover important topics related to the field of emotion recognition. We review several studies which are based on analyzing electroencephalogram (EEG) signals as a biological marker in emotion changes. Considering low cost, good time and spatial resolution, EEG has become very common and is widely used in most BCI applications and studies. First, we state some theories and basic definitions related to emotions. Then some important steps of an emotion recognition system like different kinds of biologic measurements (EEG, electrocardiogram [EEG], respiration rate, etc), offline vs online recognition methods, emotion stimulation types and common emotion models are described. Finally, the recent and most important studies are reviewed

Facial Expression Analysis under Partial Occlusion: A Survey

Automatic machine-based Facial Expression Analysis (FEA) has made substantial progress in the past few decades driven by its importance for applications in psychology, security, health, entertainment and human computer interaction. The vast majority of completed FEA studies are based on non-occluded faces collected in a controlled laboratory environment. Automatic expression recognition tolerant to partial occlusion remains less understood, particularly in real-world scenarios. In recent years, efforts investigating techniques to handle partial occlusion for FEA have seen an increase. The context is right for a comprehensive perspective of these developments and the state of the art from this perspective. This survey provides such a comprehensive review of recent advances in dataset creation, algorithm development, and investigations of the effects of occlusion critical for robust performance in FEA systems. It outlines existing challenges in overcoming partial occlusion and discusses possible opportunities in advancing the technology. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first FEA survey dedicated to occlusion and aimed at promoting better informed and benchmarked future work.Comment: Authors pre-print of the article accepted for publication in ACM Computing Surveys (accepted on 02-Nov-2017

SAFE: An EEG dataset for stable affective feature selection

An affective brain-computer interface (aBCI) is a direct communication pathway between human brain and computer, via which the computer tries to recognize the affective states of its user and respond accordingly. As aBCI introduces personal affective factors into human-computer interaction, it could potentially enrich the user’s experience during the interaction. Successful emotion recognition plays a key role in such a system. The state-of-the-art aBCIs leverage machine learning techniques which consist in acquiring affective electroencephalogram (EEG) signals from the user and calibrating the classifier to the affective patterns of the user. Many studies have reported satisfactory recognition accuracy using this paradigm. However, affective neural patterns are volatile over time even for the same subject. The recognition accuracy cannot be maintained if the usage of aBCI prolongs without recalibration. Existing studies have overlooked the performance evaluation of aBCI during long-term use. In this paper, we propose SAFE—an EEG dataset for stable affective feature selection. The dataset includes multiple recording sessions spanning across several days for each subject. Multiple sessions across different days were recorded so that the long-term recognition performance of aBCI can be evaluated. Based on this dataset, we demonstrate that the recognition accuracy of aBCIs deteriorates when re-calibration is ruled out during long-term usage. Then, we propose a stable feature selection method to choose the most stable affective features, for mitigating the accuracy deterioration to a lesser extent and maximizing the aBCI performance in the long run. We invite other researchers to test the performance of their aBCI algorithms on this dataset, and especially to evaluate the long-term performance of their methods

KEER2022

Avanttítol: KEER2022. DiversitiesDescripció del recurs: 25 juliol 202

Investigations Into the Phenomenology and the Ontology of the Work of Art

​This book investigates the nature of aesthetic experience and aesthetic objects. Written by leading philosophers, psychologists, literary scholars and semioticians, the book addresses two intertwined issues. The first is related to the phenomenology of aesthetic experience: The understanding of how human beings respond to artworks, how we process linguistic or visual information, and what properties in artworks trigger aesthetic experiences. The examination of the properties of aesthetic experience reveals essential aspects of our perceptual, cognitive, and semiotic capacities. The second issue studied in this volume is related to the ontology of the work of art: Written or visual artworks are a specific type of objects, containing particular kinds of representation which elicit a particular kind of experience. The research question explored is: What properties in artful objects trigger this type of experience, and what characterizes representation in written and visual artworks? The volume sets the scene for state-of-the-art inquiries in the intersection between the psychology and ontology of art. The investigations of the relation between the properties of artworks and the characteristics of aesthetic experience increase our insight into what art is. In addition, they shed light on essential properties of human meaning-making in general

Digitizing arquetypal human expereience through physiological signals

The problem of capturing human experience is relevant in many application domains. In fact, the process of describing and sharing individual experience lies at the heart of human culture. This advancement came at a price of losing some of the multidimensional aspects of primary, bodily experience during its projection into the symbolic formThroughout the courses of our lives we learn a great deal of information about the world from other people's experience. Besides the ability to share utilitarian experience such as whether a particular plant is poisonous, humans have developed a sophisticated competency of social signaling that enables us to express and decode emotional experience. The natural way of sharing emotional experiences requires those who share to be co-present during this event. However, people have overcome the limitation of physical presence by creating a symbolic system of representations.Recent research in the field of affective computing has addressed the question of digitization and transmission of emotional experience through monitoring and interpretation of physiological signals. Although the outcomes of this research represent a great step forward in developing a technology that supports sharing of emotional experiences, they do not seem to help in preserving the original phenomenological experience during the aforementioned projection. This circumstance is explained by the fact that in affective computing the focus of investigation has been aimed at emotional experiences which can be consciously evaluated and described by individuals themselves. Therefore, generally speaking, applying an affective computing technique for capturing emotions of an individual is not a deeper or more precise way to project her experience into the symbolic form than asking this person to write down a description of her emotions on a piece of paper. One can say that so far the research in affective computing has aimed at delivering technology that could automate the projection but it has not considered the problem of improving the projection in order to preserve more of the multidimensional aspects of human experience.This dissertation examines whether human experience, which individuals are not able to consciously transpose into the symbolic representation, can still be captured using the techniques of affective computing.First, a theoretical framework for description of human experience which is not accessible for conscious awareness was formulated. This framework was based on the work of Carl Jung who introduced a model of a psyche that includes three levels: consciousness, the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious. Consciousness is the external layer of the psyche that consists of those thoughts and emotions which are available for one¿s conscious recollection. The personal unconscious represents a repository for all of an individual¿s feelings, memories, knowledge and thoughts that are not conscious at a given moment of time.The collective unconscious is a repository of universal modes and behaviors that are similar in all individuals. According to Jung, the collective unconscious is populated with archetypes. Archetypes are prototypical categories of objects, people and situations that existed across evolutionary time and in different cultures.Esta tesis doctoral examina si la experiencia humana, que los individuos no pueden transponer conscientemente a la representación simbólica, aún puede capturarse utilizando las técnicas de computación afectiva. Primero, se formula un marco teórico para la descripción de la experiencia humana que no es accesible para la conciencia consciente. Este marco se basó en el trabajo de Carl Jung, quien introdujo un modelo de psique que incluye tres niveles: la conciencia, el inconsciente personal y el inconsciente colectivo. Habiendo definido nuestro marco teórico, realizamos un experimento en el que se mostraron a los sujetos estímulos visuales y auditivos de bases de datos estandarizadas para la obtención de emociones conscientes. Aparte de los estímulos para las emociones conscientes, los sujetos fueron expuestos a estímulos que representaban el arquetipo del yo. Durante la presentación de los estímulos cardiovasculares se registraron las señales de los sujetos. Los resultados experimentales indicaron que las respuestas de la frecuencia cardíaca de los participantes fueron únicas para cada categoría de estímulos, incluido el arquetípico. Estos hallazgos dieron impulso a realizar otro estudio en el que se examinó un espectro más amplio de experiencias arquetípicas. En nuestro segundo estudio, hicimos un cambio de estímulos visuales y auditivos a estímulos audiovisuales porque se esperaba que los videos fueran más eficientes en la obtención de emociones conscientes y experiencias arquetípicas que las imágenes fijas o los sonidos. La cantidad de arquetipos aumentó y los sujetos en general fueron estimulados a sentir ocho experiencias arquetípicas diferentes. También preparamos estímulos para emociones conscientes. En este experimento, las señales fisiológicas incluyeron actividades cardiovasculares, electrodérmicas, respiratorias y temperatura de la piel. El análisis estadístico sugirió que las experiencias arquetípicas podrían diferenciarse en función de las activaciones fisiológicas. Además, se construyeron varios modelos de predicción basados en los datos fisiológicos recopilados. Estos modelos demostraron la capacidad de clasificar los arquetipos con una precisión que era considerablemente más alta que el nivel de probabilidad. Como los resultados del segundo estudio sugirieron una relación positiva entre las experiencias arquetípicas y las activaciones de señales fisiológicas, parecía razonable realizar otro estudio para confirmar la generalización de nuestros hallazgos. Sin embargo, antes de comenzar un nuevo experimento, se decidió construir una herramienta que pudiera facilitar la recopilación de datos fisiológicos y el reconocimiento de experiencias arquetípicas, así como de emociones conscientes. Tal herramienta nos ayudaría a nosotros y a otros investigadores a realizar experimentos sobre la experiencia humana. Nuestra herramienta funciona en "tablets" y admite la recopilación y el análisis de datos de sensores fisiológicos. El último estudio se realizó utilizando una metodología similar al segundo experimento con varias modificaciones que tenían como objetivo obtener resultados más sólidos. El esfuerzo de realizar este estudio se redujo considerablemente al usar la herramienta desarrollada. Durante el experimento, sólo medimos las actividades cardiovasculares y electrodérmicas de los sujetos porque nuestros experimentos anteriores mostraron que estas dos señales contribuyeron significativamente a la clasificación de las emociones conscientes y las experiencias arquetípicas. El análisis estadístico indicó una relación significativa entre los arquetipos retratados en los videos y las respuestas fisiológicas de los sujetos. Además, utilizando métodos de minería de datos, creamos modelos de predicción que fueron capaces de reconocer las experiencias arquetípicas con una precisión menor que en el segundo estudio, pero todavía considerablemente..