The Application of Facial Expression Recognition to the Evaluation of Abstract Graphics

While designing abstract graphics, designers transform original objects by selecting certain elements to emphasize individual concepts and preserve the original content. It is crucial for the designers to understand viewers’ emotions in order to build emotional connections between the viewers and the designers. Physiological signals can reveal people’s feelings and are corresponded with their oral responses. Facial expressions are considered as an effective tool for understanding human emotional reactions. In this research, an emotion recognition experiment based on facial expression recognition was conducted for understanding subjects’ emotional responses on different abstract graphics. FaceReader, an automatic facial expression recognition software, was applied to measure the subjects’ emotions. The results indicated that there were emotional differences in different abstract graphic styles, and the possibility of applying facial expression recognition in the design field for understanding people’s emotions was confirmed. It was expected that the results of this study could help the designers to build emotional communication with the viewers by linking designs with consumer interests to promote marketing activities.