Basic study on the measurement of eye-contact ratio using face direction recognition and human subjectivity

Abstract

In this study, the methods to evaluate the speaker's eye-contact ratio during parliamentary debate are investigated. The eye-contact ratio is defined as the ratio of the time the speaker gives the speech with his or her eyes on the judge divided by the total speech time. The methods to measure the eye-contact ratio are the human subjectivity and the image processing which analyze the face direction of the speaker. As the results, it was found that the proposed image processing system had almost same evaluation as the evaluation by the human. The relationship between the eye-contact ratio and the expression ability of speakers was also investigated. According to the research results, we aimed the establishment of the method to evaluate a speaker's level of expressions by measuring the eye-contact ratio. Now, we are developing the application to measure the eye-contact ratio, which will enable us to evaluate the speakers easier by using smart phones etc.