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Contrasting and Combining Least Squares Based Learners for Emotion Recognition in the Wild

This paper presents our contribution to ACM ICMI 2015 Emotion Recognition in the Wild Challenge (EmotiW 2015). We participate in both static facial expression (SFEW) and audio-visual emotion recognition challenges. In both challenges, we use a set of visual descriptors and their early and late fusion schemes. For AFEW, we also exploit a set of popularly used spatio-temporal modeling alternatives and carry out multi-modal fusion. For classification, we employ two least squares regression based learners that are shown to be fast and accurate on former EmotiW Challenge corpora. Specifically, we use Partial Least Squares Regression (PLS) and Kernel Extreme Learning Machines (ELM), which is closely related to Kernel Regularized Least Squares. We use a General Procrustes Analysis (GPA) based alignment for face registration. By employing different alignments, descriptor types, video modeling strategies and classifiers, we diversify learners to improve the final fusion performance. Test set accuracies reached in both challenges are relatively 25% above the respective baselines.

Kernel ELM and CNN Based Facial Age Estimation

We propose a two-level system for apparent age estimation from facial images. Our system first classifies samples into overlapping age groups. Within each group, the apparent age is estimated with local regressors, whose outputs are then fused for the final estimate. We use a deformable parts model based face detector, and features from a pretrained deep convolutional network. Kernel extreme learning machines are used for classification. We evaluate our system on the ChaLearn Looking at People 2016 - Apparent Age Estimation challenge dataset, and report 0.3740 normal score on the sequestered test set.

Video-based emotion recognition in the wild using deep transfer learning and score fusion *

Abstract Multimodal recognition of affective states is a difficult problem, unless the recording conditions are carefully controlled. For recognition “in the wild”, large variances in face pose and illumination, cluttered backgrounds, occlusions, audio and video noise, as well as issues with subtle cues of expression are some of the issues to target. In this paper, we describe a multimodal approach for video-based emotion recognition in the wild. We propose using summarizing functionals of complementary visual descriptors for video modeling. These features include deep convolutional neural network (CNN) based features obtained via transfer learning, for which we illustrate the importance of flexible registration and fine-tuning. Our approach combines audio and visual features with least squares regression based classifiers and weighted score level fusion. We report state-of-the-art results on the EmotiW Challenge for “in the wild” facial expression recognition. Our approach scales to other problems, and ranked top in the ChaLearn-LAP First Impressions Challenge 2016 from video clips collected in the wild.

Multimodal fusion of audio, scene, and face features for first impression estimation

Affective computing, particularly emotion and personality trait recognition, is of increasing interest in many research disciplines. The interplay of emotion and personality shows itself in the first impression left on other people. Moreover, the ambient information, e.g. the environment and objects surrounding the subject, also affect these impressions. In this work, we employ pre-trained Deep Convolutional Neural Networks to extract facial emotion and ambient information from images for predicting apparent personality. We also investigate Local Gabor Binary Patterns from Three Orthogonal Planes video descriptor and acoustic features extracted via the popularly used openSMILE tool. We subsequently propose classifying features using a Kernel Extreme Learning Machine and fusing their predictions. The proposed system is applied to the ChaLearn Challenge on First Impression Recognition, achieving the winning test set accuracy of 0.913, averaged over the “Big Five” personality traits.

Combining Deep Facial and Ambient Features for First Impression Estimation

First impressions influence the behavior of people towards a newly encountered person or a human-like agent. Apart from the physical characteristics of the encountered face, the emotional expressions displayed on it, as well as ambient information affect these impressions. In this work, we propose an approach to predict the first impressions people will have for a given video depicting a face within a context. We employ pre-trained Deep Convolutional Neural Networks to extract facial expressions, as well as ambient information. After video modeling, visual features that represent facial expression and scene are combined and fed to a Kernel Extreme Learning Machine regressor. The proposed system is evaluated on the ChaLearn Challenge Dataset on First Impression Recognition, where the classification target is the “Big Five” personality trait labels for each video. Our system achieved an accuracy of 90.94 % on the sequestered test set, 0.36 % points below the top system in the competition.

Multi-modal Score Fusion and Decision Trees for Explainable Automatic Job Candidate Screening from Video CVs

We describe an end-to-end system for explainable automatic job candidate screening from video CVs. In this application, audio, face and scene features are first computed from an input video CV, using rich feature sets. These multiple modalities are fed into modality-specific regressors to predict apparent personality traits and a variable that predicts whether the subject will be invited to the interview. The base learners are stacked to an ensemble of decision trees to produce the outputs of the quantitative stage, and a single decision tree, combined with a rule-based algorithm produces interview decision explanations based on the quantitative results. The proposed system in this work ranks first in both quantitative and qualitative stages of the CVPR 2017 ChaLearn Job Candidate Screening Coopetition.

Bayesian and Graph Theory Approaches to Develop Strategic Early Warning Systems for the Milk Market

This paper presents frameworks for developing a Strategic Early Warning System allowing the estimatation of the future state of the milk market. Thus, this research is in line with the recent call from the EU commission for tools which help to better address such a highly volatile market. We applied different multivariate time series regression and Bayesian networks on a pre-determined map of relations between macro economic indicators. The evaluation of our findings with root mean square error (RMSE) performance score enhances the robustness of the prediction model constructed. Finally, we construct a graph to represent the major factors that effect the milk industry and their relationships. We use graph theoretical analysis to give several network measures for this social network; such as centrality and density.

Measurement of Facial Dynamics for Soft Biometrics

Facial dynamics contain idiosyncratic information that can help appearance-based systems in a number of tasks. This paper summarizes our research on using facial dynamics as a soft biometric, in establishing the age and kinship similarity, as well as for assessing expression spontaneity. Our findings suggest that high-resolution and high-frequency information gathered from the face can be very informative, and result in systems that go beyond human performance in a number of domains.