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Emotional intelligence for any application

Measure expression along with language. Optimize for happiness.

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University of Zurich

Measure emotional expression with unmatched precision

One API, four modalities, hundreds of dimensions of emotional expression.

speechProsody

Speech Prosody

Voice
vocalExpression

Vocal Expression

Voice
vocalCallTypes

Vocal Call Types

Voice

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Voice models

speechProsody

Speech Prosody

vocalExpression

Vocal Expression

vocalCallTypes

Vocal Call Types

Voice models

speechProsody

Speech Prosody

vocalExpression

Vocal Expression

vocalCallTypes

Vocal Call Types

Image & video models

Embedding Plot

speechProsodyvocalExpressionvocalCallTypesfacialExpressionfacs20dynamicReactionmodel placeholder
Voice

Speech Prosody

facialExpression

Facial Expression

Image & Video
facs20

FACS 2.0

Image & Video
videoReact

Dynamic Reaction

Image & Video

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Image & video models

facialExpression

Facial Expression

facs20

FACS 2.0

videoReact

Dynamic Reaction

Voice models

Image & video models

facialExpression

Facial Expression

facs20

FACS 2.0

videoReact

Dynamic Reaction

Embedding Plot

speechProsodyvocalExpressionvocalCallTypesfacialExpressionfacs20dynamicReactionmodel placeholder
Voice

Speech Prosody

speechProsody

Speech Prosody

Voice
vocalExpression

Vocal Expression

Voice
vocalCallTypes

Vocal Call Types

Voice
facialExpression

Facial Expression

Image & Video
facs20

FACS 2.0

Image & Video
videoReact

Dynamic Reaction

Image & Video

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speechProsody

Speech Prosody

vocalExpression

Vocal Expression

vocalCallTypes

Vocal Call Types

facialExpression

Facial Expression

facs20

FACS 2.0

videoReact

Dynamic Reaction

Voice models

speechProsody

Speech Prosody

vocalExpression

Vocal Expression

vocalCallTypes

Vocal Call Types

Image & video models

facialExpression

Facial Expression

facs20

FACS 2.0

videoReact

Dynamic Reaction

Embedding Plot

speechProsodyvocalExpressionvocalCallTypesfacialExpressionfacs20dynamicReactionmodel placeholder
Voice

Speech Prosody

speechProsody

Speech Prosody

Voice
vocalExpression

Vocal Expression

Voice
vocalCallTypes

Vocal Call Types

Voice
facialExpression

Facial Expression

Image & Video
facs20

FACS 2.0

Image & Video
videoReact

Dynamic Reaction

Image & Video

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speechProsody

Speech Prosody

vocalExpression

Vocal Expression

vocalCallTypes

Vocal Call Types

facialExpression

Facial Expression

facs20

FACS 2.0

videoReact

Dynamic Reaction

Voice models

speechProsody

Speech Prosody

vocalExpression

Vocal Expression

vocalCallTypes

Vocal Call Types

Image & video models

facialExpression

Facial Expression

facs20

FACS 2.0

videoReact

Dynamic Reaction

Our models are built on 10+ years of research, millions of proprietary data points, and over 40 publications in leading journals.
Try in Playground

AI models of emotional expression

Traditional theories posited six discrete emotions, but we’ve discovered that emotional behavior is better explained by a high-dimensional, continuous space

speechProsody
Speech Prosody

Discover over 25 patterns of tune, rhythm, and timbre

Modalities

Speech

Samples

Use this map to explore the outputs of our speech prosody model

Emotions

Amusement, Anger, Awkwardness, Boredom, Calmness, Confusion, Contempt, Desire, Determination, Distress, Fear, Guilt, Horror, Pain, Pride, Sadness, Surprise, and Tiredness

Publications

The primacy of categories in the recognition of 12 emotions in speech prosody across two cultures

How emotions, relationships, and culture constitute each other: Advances in social functionalist theory

Semantic Space Theory: Data-driven insights into basic emotions

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speechProsodyvocalExpressionvocalCallTypesfacialExpressionfacs20dynamicReaction
Voice

Speech Prosody

View model
View model

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Research highlights
publications

A high-dimension map of expressive behavior

Semantic space theory

We’ve introduced datasets and machine learning methods to explore the dimensions of meaning underlying the feelings we report. We find nuanced patterns of expression in the face, voice, and beyond, replacing low-dimensional theories with a high-dimensional, data-driven understanding of human emotional expression. These discoveries provide a new foundation for emotion science and empathic AI.

Explore findings
smiling boy

28 nuanced facial expressions

The face

We’ve collected millions of natural facial expressions worldwide. Our findings reveal that facial expressions are more complex and nuanced than previously assumed. Our facial expression models replace time-consuming approaches to behavioral measurement with automated analysis.

Explore findings
smiling girl

Interpreting the value of laughs, cries, and sighs

The voice

The voice is even richer with nonverbal cues than facial expressions. We pioneered decoding subtle qualities in speech prosody: intonation, timbre, and rhythm. We go beyond language by understanding how something is said, not just what is said. We also study “vocal bursts” including sighs, gasps, grunts, laughs, shrieks, oohs, and ahhs. This work unlocks a parallel channel of information in the voice that was previously overlooked by AI.

Explore findings
guy in yellow t-shirt, blurred emotions

Publications

Discover the research foundational to our products

  • Sixteen facial expressions occur in similar contexts worldwide

    What emotions do the face and body express? Guided by new conceptual and quantitative approaches (Cowen, Elfenbein, Laukka, & Keltner, 2018; Cowen & Keltner, 2017, 2018), we explore the taxonomy of emotion recognized in facial-bodily expression.

    Nature.png
    Read article
  • What music makes us feel: At least 13 dimensions organize subjective experiences associated with music across different cultures

    Emotional vocalizations are central to human social life. Recent studies have documented that people recognize at least 13 emotions in brief vocalizations. This capacity emerges early in development, is preserved in some form across cultures, and informs how people respond emotionally to music.

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    Read article
  • Self-report captures 27 distinct categories of emotion bridged by continuous gradients

    Claims about how reported emotional experiences are geometrically organized within a semantic space have shaped the study of emotion. Using statistical methods to analyze reports of emotional states elicited by 2,185 emotionally evocative short videos with richly varying situational content, we uncovered 27 varieties of reported emotional experience.

    Pnas logo
    Read article
  • Universal facial expressions uncovered in art of the ancient Americas: A computational approach

    Central to the study of emotion is evidence concerning its universality, particularly the degree to which emotional expressions are similar across cultures. Here, we present an approach to studying the universality of emotional expression that rules out cultural contact and circumvents potential biases in survey-based methods: A computational analysis of apparent facial expressions portrayed in artwork created by members of cultures isolated from Western civilization.

    Science Advances logo
    Read article
  • Mapping the passions: Toward a high-dimensional taxonomy of emotional experience and expression

    What would a comprehensive atlas of human emotions include? For 50 years, scientists have sought to map emotion-related experience, expression, physiology, and recognition in terms of the “basic six”—anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise.

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    Read article
  • The neural representation of visually evoked emotion Is high-dimensional, categorical, and distributed across transmodal brain regions

    Emotional vocalizations are central to human social life. Recent studies have documented that people recognize at least 13 emotions in brief vocalizations. This capacity emerges early in development, is preserved in some form across cultures, and informs how people respond emotionally to music.

    iScience logo
    Read article
  • GoEmotions: A dataset of fine-grained emotions

    Understanding emotion expressed in language has a wide range of applications, from building empathetic chatbots to detecting harmful online behavior. Advancement in this area can be improved using large-scale datasets with a fine-grained typology, adaptable to multiple downstream tasks.

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    Read article
  • Facial movements have over twenty dimensions of perceived meaning that are only partially captured with traditional methods

    Central to science and technology are questions about how to measure facial expression. Thecurrent gold standard is the facial action coding system (FACS), which is often assumed toaccount for all facial muscle movements relevant toperceived emotion. However, the mapping from FACS codes to perceived emotion is not well understood.

    PsyArxiv logo
    Read article
  • The primacy of categories in the recognition of 12 emotions in speech prosody across two cultures

    What would a comprehensive atlas of human emotions include? For 50 years, scientists have sought to map emotion-related experience, expression, physiology, and recognition in terms of the “basic six”—anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise.

    Nature human behaviour logo
    Read article
  • How emotion is experienced and expressed in multiple cultures: a large-scale experiment across North America, Europe, and Japan

    Core to understanding emotion are subjective experiences and their expression in facial behavior. Past studies have largely focused on six emotions and prototypical facial poses, reflecting limitations in scale and narrow assumptions about the variety of emotions and their patterns of expression.

    Logo Frontiers Grey
    Read articleRead blog
  • Semantic Space Theory: Data-driven insights into basic emotions

    Here we present semantic space theory and the data-driven methods it entails. Across the largest studies to date of emotion-related experience, expression, and physiology, we find that emotion is high dimensional, defined by blends of upward of 20 distinct kinds of emotions, and not reducible to low-dimensional structures and conceptual processes as assumed by constructivist accounts.

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    Read article
  • Deep learning reveals what vocal bursts express in different cultures

    Human social life is rich with sighs, chuckles, shrieks and other emotional vocalizations, called ‘vocal bursts’. Nevertheless, the meaning of vocal bursts across cultures is only beginning to be understood. Here, we combined large-scale experimental data collection with deep learning to reveal the shared and culture-specific meanings of vocal bursts.

    Nature human behaviour logo
    Read articleRead blog
  • The MuSe 2022 Multimodal Sentiment Analysis Challenge: Humor, Emotional Reactions, and Stress

    The 3rd Multimodal Sentiment Analysis Challenge (MuSe) focuses on multimodal affective computing.

    ACM
    Read article
  • How emotions, relationships, and culture constitute each other: Advances in social functionalist theory

    Social Functionalist Theory (SFT) emerged 20 years ago to orient emotion science to the social nature of emotion. Here we expand upon SFT and make the case for how emotions, relationships, and culture constitute one another.

    Cognition and Emotion logo
    Read article
  • Intersectionality in emotion signaling and recognition: The influence of gender, ethnicity, and social class

    Emotional expressions are a language of social interaction. Guided by recent advances in the study of expression and intersectionality, the present investigation examined how gender, ethnicity, and social class influence the signaling and recognition of 34 states in dynamic full-body expressive behavior

    Emotion journal logo
    Read article
  • Mapping 24 emotions conveyed by brief human vocalization

    Emotional vocalizations are central to human social life. Recent studies have documented that people recognize at least 13 emotions in brief vocalizations. This capacity emerges early in development, is preserved in some form across cultures, and informs how people respond emotionally to music.

    American Psychologist
    Read article
  • What the face displays: Mapping 28 emotions conveyed by naturalistic expression

    What emotions do the face and body express? Guided by new conceptual and quantitative approaches, we explore the taxonomy of emotion recognized in facial-bodily expression. Participants judged the emotions captured in 1,500 photographs of facial-bodily expression in terms of emotion categories, appraisals, free response, and ecological validity.

    American Psychologist
    Read article
  • The ICML 2022 Expressive Vocalizations Workshop and Competition: Recognizing, generating, and personalizing vocal bursts

    The ICML Expressive Vocalization (EXVO) Competition is focused on understanding and generating vocal bursts: laughs, gasps, cries, and other non-verbal vocalizations that are central to emotional expression and communication.

    ICML2022 logo
    Read article
  • The ACII 2022 Affective Vocal Bursts Workshop & Competition: Understanding a critically understudied modality of emotional expression

    The ACII Affective Vocal Bursts Workshop & Competition is focused on understanding multiple affective dimensions of vocal bursts: laughs, gasps, cries, screams, and many other non-linguistic vocalizations central to the expression of emotion and to human communication more generally.

    ACII2022
    Read article
  • Emotional expression: Advances in basic emotion theory

    In this article, we review recent developments in the study of emotional expression within a basic emotion framework. Dozens of new studies find that upwards of 20 emotions are signaled in multimodal and dynamic patterns of expressive behavior.

    Jnb 01.png
    Read article
  • Deep learning reveals what facial expressions mean to people in different cultures

    Cross-cultural studies of the meaning of facial expressions have largely focused on judgments of small sets of stereotypical images by small numbers of people. Here, we used large-scale data collection and machine learning to map what facial expressions convey in six countries.

    Iscience
    Read articleRead blog

References

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Expuni

Are emotional expressions universal?

Do people around the world express themselves in the same way? Does a smile mean the same thing worldwide? And how about a chuckle, a sigh, or a grimace? These questions about the cross-cultural universality of expressions are among the more important and long-standing in behavioral sciences like psychology and anthropology—and central to the study of emotion.

Learn more
Reg (1)

What is emotion science?

How can artificial intelligence achieve the level of emotional intelligence required to understand what makes us happy? As AI becomes increasingly integrated into our daily lives, the need for AI to understand emotional behaviors and what they signal about our intentions and preferences has never been more critical.

Learn more

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