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The Forum: The Human Face: How We See Each Other

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Tony Lidington with a Dan Leno smile. Copyright: Harmony Studios

19/03/2016 GMT

The Human Face: How We See Each Other

BBC World Service - The Forum, The Human Face: How We See Each Other

How humans and machines interpret facial expressions

How humans and machines interpret facial expressions.

Bridget Kendall explores how we interpret facial expressions and how our face is being interpreted by machines for health, happiness and profit. How do we read each other’s faces? How much do we rely on visual clues? How much on context? What is going on in our heads when we respond to a grin or a grimace? And what is happening in the field of machine facial interpretation?

To examine the human face  Bridget is joined by Paula Niedenthal, an American social psychologist whose ground breaking research suggests one vital key to reading other people may be our subconscious inclination to mimic each other’s facial expressions; Rana el Kaliouby, an Egyptian born computer scientist who is at the forefront of the new field of ‘affective computing’ – programming machines to read and respond to human emotions; The British actor and director Tony Lidington, with his take on how facial expressions can enhance meaning- and mask it too.

(Photo: Tony Lidington with a Dan Leno smile. Copyright: Harmony Studios)

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