Previous research in automatic facial expression recognition has been limited to recognition of gross expression categories (e.g., joy or anger) in posed facial behavior under well-controlled conditions (e.g., frontal pose and minimal out-of-plane head motion). We developed a system that detects discrete and important facial actions, (e.g., eye blinking), in spontaneously occurring facial behavior with non-frontal pose, moderate out-of-plane head motion, and occlusion. The system recovers 3D motion parameters, stabilizes facial regions, extracts motion and appearance information, and recognizes discrete facial actions in spontaneous facial behavior. We tested the system in video data from a 2-person interview. Subjects were ethnically diverse, action units occurred during speech, and out-of-plane motion and occlusion from head motion and glasses were common. The video data were originally collected to answer substantive questions in psychology, and represent a substantial challenge to automated AU recognition. In the analysis of 335 single and multiple blinks and non-blinks, the system achieved 98% accuracy.
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