The paper discusses the results of a case study on the effect of players' facial responses when playing a casual game. In order to do so, it measures the facial responses in casual games by recording facial EMG and analyzing players' facial expressions using FACS. It investigates which one of the two measurements is more effective to measure emotional responses in casual games. The results of this case study show that playing a casual game causes the players to respond with both facial expressions and facial EMG activity and that both measurements are needed in order to get a good understanding of the players' emotional responses to casual game events.
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In this paper we investigate the expression of emotions through mediated touch. Participants used the Tactile Sleeve for Social Touch (TaSST), a wearable sleeve that consists of a pressure sensitive input layer, and a vibration motor output layer, to record a number of expressions of discrete emotions. The aim was to investigate if participants could make meaningful distinctions in the tactile expression of the emotions.
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In daily interaction with horses, humans primarily rely on facial expression as a non-verbal equine cue for emotional information. Difficulties in correctly recognizing these signals might arise due to the species-specificity of facial cues, possibly leading to diminished equine welfare and health. This study aimed to explore human visual search patterns when assessing equine facial expressions indicative of various pain levels, utilizing eye-tracking technology. Hundred and eight individuals (N = 108), classified into three groups (affinity with horses (N = 60), pet owners with no affinity with horses (N = 32), and individuals with no affinity with animals (N = 16)) participated in the study; with their eye movements recorded using eye tracking glasses they evaluated four photos of horses with different levels of pain. Error score, calculated by comparing participant scores to Gold Standard Visual Analogue Score levels and fixation metrics (number of fixations and duration of fixations) were analysed across the four photos, participant group and Areas of Interest (AOIs): eyes, ears, nostrils, and mouth. Statistical analysis utilized linear mixed models. Highlighting the critical role of the eyes as key indicators of pain, findings showed that the eyes played a significant role in assessing equine emotional states, as all groups focused on them for a longer time and more frequently compared to other facial features. Also, participants showed a consistent pattern in how they looked at a horse's face, first focusing on the eyes, then the ears, and finally the nose/mouth region, indicating a horse-specific pattern. Moderate pain was assessed with similar accuracy across all groups, indicating that these signals are broadly recognizable. Nevertheless, non-equestrians faced challenges with recognizing the absence of pain, possibly highlighting the role of experience in interpreting subtle equine expressions. The study's limitations, such as variability in assessment conditions may have impacted findings. Future work could further investigate why humans follow this visual search pattern and whether they recognize the significance of a horse's ears. Additionally, emphasis should be placed on developing targeted training interventions to improve equine pain recognition, possibly benefiting equine welfare and health.
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We examined the neural correlates of facial attractiveness by presenting pictures of male or female faces (neutral expression) with low/intermediate/high attractiveness to 48 male or female participants while recording their electroencephalogram (EEG). Subjective attractiveness ratings were used to determine the 10% highest, 10% middlemost, and 10% lowest rated faces for each individual participant to allow for high contrast comparisons. These were then split into preferred and dispreferred gender categories. ERP components P1, N1, P2, N2, early posterior negativity (EPN), P300 and late positive potential (LPP) (up until 3000 ms post-stimulus), and the face specific N170 were analysed. A salience effect (attractive/unattractive > intermediate) in an early LPP interval (450–850 ms) and a long-lasting valence related effect (attractive > unattractive) in a late LPP interval (1000–3000 ms) were elicited by the preferred gender faces but not by the dispreferred gender faces. Multi-variate pattern analysis (MVPA)-classifications on whole-brain single-trial EEG patterns further confirmed these salience and valence effects. It is concluded that, facial attractiveness elicits neural responses that are indicative of valenced experiences, but only if these faces are considered relevant. These experiences take time to develop and last well beyond the interval that is commonly explored.
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Digital surveillance technologies using artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as computer vision and facial recognition are becoming cheaper and easier to integrate into governance practices worldwide. Morocco serves as an example of how such technologies are becoming key tools of governance in authoritarian contexts. Based on qualitative fieldwork including semi-structured interviews, observation, and extensive desk reviews, this chapter focusses on the role played by AI-enhanced technology in urban surveillance and the control of migration between the Moroccan–Spanish borders. Two cross-cutting issues emerge: first, while international donors provide funding for urban and border surveillance projects, their role in enforcing transparency mechanisms in their implementation remains limited; second, Morocco’s existing legal framework hinders any kind of public oversight. Video surveillance is treated as the sole prerogative of the security apparatus, and so far public actors have avoided to engage directly with the topic. The lack of institutional oversight and public debate on the matter raise serious concerns on the extent to which the deployment of such technologies affects citizens’ rights. AI-enhanced surveillance is thus an intrinsically transnational challenge in which private interests of economic gain and public interests of national security collide with citizens’ human rights across the Global North/Global South divide.
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Over the past few years a growing number of artists have critiqued the ubiquity of identity recognition technologies. Specifically, the use of these technologies by state security programs, tech-giants and multinational corporations has met with opposition and controversy. A popular form of resistance to recognition technology is sought in strategies of masking and camouflage. Zach Blas, Leo Selvaggio, Sterling Crispin and Adam Harvey are among a group of internationally acclaimed artists who have developed subversive anti-facial recognition masks that disrupt identification technologies. This paper examines the ontological underpinnings of these popular and widely exhibited mask projects. Over and against a binary understanding and criticism of identity recognition technology, I propose to take a relational turn to reimagine these technologies not as an object for our eyes, but as a relationship between living organisms and things. A relational perspective cuts through dualist and anthropocentric conceptions of recognition technology opening pathways to intersectional forms of resistance and critique. Moreover, if human-machine relationships are to be understood as coming into being in mutual dependency, if the boundaries between online and offline are always already blurred, if the human and the machine live intertwined lives and it is no longer clear where the one stops and the other starts, we need to revise our understanding of the self. A relational understanding of recognition technology moves away from a notion of the self as an isolated and demarcated entity in favour of an understanding of the self as relationally connected, embedded and interdependent. This could alter the way we relate to machines and multiplies the lines of flight we can take out of a culture of calculated settings.
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