SPIDERS: Low-Cost Wireless Glasses for Continuous In-Situ Bio-Signal Acquisition and Emotion Recognition

We present a System for Processing In-situ Bio-signal Data for Emotion Recognition and Sensing (SPIDERS)– a low-cost, wireless, glasses-based platform for continuous in-situ monitoring of user's facial expressions (apparent emotions) and real emotions. We present algorithms to provide four core functions (eye shape and eyebrow movements, pupillometry, zygomaticus muscle movements, and head movements), using the bio-signals acquired from three non-contact sensors (IR camera, proximity sensor, IMU). SPIDERS distinguishes between different classes of apparent and real emotion states based on the aforementioned four bio-signals. We prototype advanced functionalities including facial expression detection and real emotion classification with a landmarks and optical flow based facial expression detector that leverages changes in a user's eyebrows and eye shapes to achieve up to 83.87% accuracy, as well as a pupillometry-based real emotion classifier with higher accuracy than other low-cost wearable platforms that use sensors requiring skin contact. SPIDERS costs less than $20 to assemble and can continuously run for up to 9 hours before recharging. We demonstrate that SPIDERS is a truly wireless and portable platform that has the capability to impact a wide range of applications, where knowledge of the user's emotional state is critical.