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Motoyasu Masui, Yoshinari Takekawa, Nohana Nitta, Keiji Hirata of Design Intelligence Laboratory, Future University Hakodate, Yutaka Tokuda of City University of Hong Kong, Yuta Sugiura of Lifestyle Computing Lab, Keio University "PerformEyebrow: an artificial eyebrow shape control device that can expand the wearer's emotional expression" developed by a research team led by Mr. Katsutoshi Masai of the NTT Communication Science Laboratories Kashino Diversified Brain Special Laboratory, the shape of artificial eyebrows can change in various ways. It is a glasses-type wearable device that expands facial expressions by doing. [Image] System configuration diagram Some people misunderstand that they are angry even if they are expressionless, some people are not able to change their expressions to be expressive even if they are happy, and they are not able to convey their emotions well. For people who have difficulty forming facial expressions, the research team proposes an expression augmentation system that can present a variety of eyebrow shapes and assist in changing facial expressions. The proposed system is based on eyeglasses and consists of artificial eyebrows drawn with thermochromic ink and a base heating wire printed with conductive ink. On the upper part of the glasses, the base, electric heating circuit, and artificial eyebrows drawn with thermochromic ink are layered in order. When the shape of the eyebrows changes, a voltage is applied to the heating wire to selectively erase the color of the thermochromic ink to control the shape of the eyebrows. Instead of moving a single eyebrow up and down to reproduce various facial expressions, prepare X-shaped eyebrows that curve upwards and downwards and hide unnecessary parts as appropriate. eyebrows change. By making full use of this technique, 7 different facial expressions can be reproduced. An experiment to evaluate the impression given to the viewer by seven types of eyebrow shape changes, and a mask wearing version (using a mask illustration superimposed on the face image) were also conducted. At that time, in order to unify all faces, a still image was used for the wearer's face. Subjects were asked to respond to each facial expression with seven emotions: Anger, Sadness, Fear, Disgust, Surprise, Happy, and Contempt. Each was asked to respond on a 5-point Likert scale. As a result of the experiment, it was found that emotions such as sadness and anger could be expressed without a mask. All facial expressions were more emotional when wearing a mask than when not wearing a mask. In the future, he would like to conduct evaluation experiments on a dynamic version in which the eyebrows change on the spot instead of a static image, and a version using a real mask. This time, it was artificial eyebrows to be installed in glasses, but they would like to improve the function so that it becomes a device that harmonizes with the face more by removing the glasses and making silicon-based thin artificial eyebrows that cover the eyebrows. Source and image credit: Motoyasu Masui, Yoshinari Takekawa, Nonoka Nitta, Yutaka Tokuda, Yuta Sugiura, Katsutoshi Masai, Keiji Hirata. 2021, vol. 62, no.11, p.1817-1828. * Written by Hiroki Yamashita, who presides over the web media "Seamless" that introduces the latest research in technology. Mr. Yamashita picks up highly novel scientific papers and explains them.
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