via BBC

An “emotionally aware” computer system designed to read people’s minds by analysing expressions will be featured at a major London exhibition.

…The computer, which is connected to a camera, locates and tracks 24 facial “feature points” such as the edge of the nose, the eyebrows and the corners of the mouth.

A total of 20 key facial movements - including a nod or shake of the head, a raise of the eyebrow or a pull on the corner of the mouth - have been identified.

Combinations of these movements, which are thought to represent underlying emotions, are then fed into software and used to detect the same facial combinations in real-life situations.

(Credit: Royal Society)