Anatomical Basis of Facial Expressions

ARTNATOMY <--- INTERACTIVE FLASH SIMULATOR

Facial Action Coding System (FACS) is a system originally developed by Paul Ekman and Wallace Friesen in 1976, to taxonomize every conceivable human facial expression. It is the most popular standard currently used to systematically categorize the physical expression of emotions, and it has proven useful both to psychologists and to animators. FACS and its action units are based on the book of Carl-Herman Hjortsjö "Man's Face and Mimic Language". It defines expressions as one of 46 "Action Units" (AUs), which are a contraction or relaxation of one or more muscles.



Although the labeling of expressions currently requires trained experts, researchers have had some success in using computers to automatically identify FACS codes, and thus quickly identify emotions.
Computer graphical face models, such as CANDIDE or Artnatomy, allow expressions to be artificially posed by setting the desired action units. Wikipedia