Face-GPS: A Comprehensive Technique for Quantifying Facial Muscle Dynamics in Videos

Abstract

We introduce a novel method that combines differential geometry, kernels smoothing, and spectral analysis to quantify facial muscle activity from widely accessible video recordings, such as those captured on personal smartphones. Our approach emphasizes practicality and accessibility. It has significant potential for applications in national security and plastic surgery. Additionally, it offers remote diagnosis and monitoring for medical conditions such as stroke, Bell's palsy, and acoustic neuroma. Moreover, it is adept at detecting and classifying emotions, from the overt to the subtle. The proposed face muscle analysis technique is an explainable alternative to deep learning methods and a non-invasive substitute to facial electromyography (fEMG).