Recent trends in facial expression databases including validation processes

Abstract

Facial expression images or movies are used as stimuli in various research fields, especially in psychological research. Using facial expression databases is helpful for the purpose because they reduce burden of collecting facial images. A lot of facial expression databases are available nowadays, though the number of databases which apt to psychological experiments is restricted. In this report, I introduce facial expression databases including validation process as those which are eligible for using in psychological studies. It can be thought that validation ensures the quality of database and gives us data which can be used as standards for the experimental results. Recent development of facial expression databases shows that researchers have been trying to include various emotions other than six basic facial expressions, and/or offer them with additional information such as gestures or voices. These trends diversify the methods of validation.