Knowledge Base

Physical setup

Physical Setup

The physical setup of your experiment is crucial for an accurate analysis with FaceReader. We give the following general guidelines: Place the camera in front of the test participant and slightly below eye level. Make sure your camera provides images with good contrast and brightness. Good lighting is crucial. Avoid direct light, reflections and shadows on the face. Make sure the lighting on the face comes directly from the front, for example by placing the setup in front of a window. If necessary, use lights on either side of the monitor, or a professional photo light to increase light intensity, or to compensate for unwanted light sources. Install FaceReader

Install FaceReader

To install FaceReader

1. Download the installation file (FaceReader [version number] Setup.exe) from the MyNoldus portal of the Noldus website (my.noldus.com). If you do not have a MyNoldus account yet, you can create one.
2. Double-click the file.
3. As Installation type, select Standard.
4. Follow the rest of the instructions on your screen to install FaceReader.

To install the Stimulus Presentation Tool (Project Analysis Module only)

If you have the Project Analysis Module, you need the Stimulus Presentation Tool to present stimuli automatically. To install it: 1. Download the installation file (Stimulus Presentation Tool 4 Setup.exe) from the Noldus website using your MyNoldus account (my.noldus.com). 2. Double-click the file to run it. 3. As Installation type, select Standard. 4. Follow the rest of the instructions on your screen to install the Stimulus Presentation Tool. Work with FaceReader

Work With FaceReader

Setup

1. Dependent on your license, do one of the following:

• If you have a hardware key, insert it into the computer and open FaceReader.
• If you have a software license key, start FaceReader and activate your license. You can choose between a Floating or a Fixed activation. Floating - Choose Floating if you want to be flexible on which computer you use FaceReader and your computer is connected to the internet. Fixed - A Fixed activation is linked to one computer. Your computer must have an internet connection to activate/deactivate a fixed license. After you have activated the license you can use FaceReader without internet.

2. Create a new Project (File > New > Project). Give the project a name and select a location to store it, or accept the default location. Work with FaceReader
3. Choose Participant > Add Participant. Enter a name or identification code for the participant.
4. The gender and age of your participants are added as independent variables and are automatically estimated by FaceReader. To select the age and gender manually, double-click the participant name. Click on the pencil button next to the independent variable to enter the values.
5. Add one or more analyses for each participant and choose to analyze from video, live from your camera or from images. To do so, select the participant for which you want to add an analysis in the Project Explorer. Click on the Video, Camera or Image button on the toolbar to add the appropriate analysis. It is not possible to mix image analyses with camera or video analyses. Work with FaceReader
6. To carry out a camera analysis, select

the option Use as default camera if

you always use this camera. To record audio, select your microphone.

Optionally, select Record to create a

video file of the test participant's face. The video will always be saved at a frame rate of 15 frames per second. To add multiple video analyses to a participant, right-click the participant's name, select Add Multiple Video Analyses, and select your videos. Work with FaceReader

Analyze

1. Click on the magnifying glass button next to an analysis to open it.
2. Check the options for this analysis in the Settings window in the bottom-left corner of the analysis window. To create default settings for each new analysis, choose File > Settings. Open the tab Default Analysis Settings and make your selection. Work with FaceReader See the FaceReader Help for an explanation of the options. Press F1 in the program to open it. Choose File > Settings > Analysis Options and select Action units, Estimate heart rate and heart rate variability and/or Consumption behavior to activate the Action Unit module, the Remote PPG module and/or the Consumption Behavior module. important If you select the Baby Face model, Facial expressions are not available as analysis output. You will obtain Action Unit intensities. See Action Unit Module in the FaceReader Help for more information. Work with FaceReader
3. Click on the Start analysis button to carry out the analysis.

tip To analyze all analyses at once, click on

the Start batch analysis button on the

toolbar.

important We recommend to close all

visualization windows before you start batch analysis. Bear in mind that carrying out batch analysis on a high number of long videos with a high resolution and frame rate may cause problems. 4. The Model quality bar should cross the dashed line. If this is not the case, improve lighting or reposition your camera.

Output

FaceReader displays a number of windows with graphical and tabular output. Work with FaceReader

Important notes

Not all visualization options may be available by default. If you do not see some of the options described in this Quick Start Guide, choose File > Settings > Analysis Options and select all options. If you selected the Baby Face model, not all output is available. See the FaceReader Help for more information.

Procedure

1. Click on one of the buttons in the Analysis Visualization window to show, for example, the key points in the face or the Facial States.
2. To switch windows, click on the Select window button in the upper- right corner of one of the windows and make your selection. See Analysis windows on page 16 for a short description of the options.
3. To zoom, or to copy or save graphs, click on one of the icons on the window toolbar. Work with FaceReader
4. To show more windows, click on the Split/Unsplit button in the upper-right corner of one of the windows. tip If you notice the test participant shows a bias towards some facial expressions, use one of the calibration methods to correct for that. See Analyze Facial Expressions/ Calibrate FaceReader in the FaceReader Help for details.

Analysis windows

For the upper windows you can choose between: Analysis Visualization - Click on a button on the left to view how FaceReader analyzes the face. Subject Characteristics - With, for example, the estimated age and gender. Facial States - Whether, for example, mouth or eyes are open or closed. Expression Intensity - A chart that displays which of the facial expressions show up in the face. Expression Summary - A pie chart with the distribution of the facial expressions. Circumplex Model of Affect - A chart in which emotions are described in a two- dimensional circular space, containing arousal on the vertical axis and valence on the horizontal axis. Action Unit Intensity - Available with the Action Unit Module. Heart rate - Available with the Remote PPG Module. Consumption Behavior Statistics - Available with the Consumption Behavior Module. Custom Expression Table - Available with the Action Unit Module. For the lower windows you can choose between the line charts: Timeline - An overview of the facial expressions, and facial states on a timeline. Valence Line Chart - The valence indicates whether the emotional status of the test participant is positive or negative. Arousal Line Chart - Arousal indicates whether the test participant is active or not active. Expression Line Chart - A line chart with the facial expression intensities over time. Head Orientation Line Chart - The head orientation on a time line (Pitch, Yaw and Roll). Heart Rate and Variability Line Chart - Available with the Remote PPG Module. Work with FaceReader Custom Expression Line Chart - Available with the Action Unit Module. Heart Beat Chart - Available with the Remote PPG Module. Head Position Line Chart - Horizontal, Vertical and Depth position on a time line. Gaze Angles Line Chart - Horizontal and Vertical gaze angle on a time line. See FaceReader's Output in the FaceReader Help for a full description of the analysis windows.

Export

To export your data, choose File > Export. Choose to export the results of the analysis, participant, or entire project. You have the following options: State log - A text file or Excel file with the dominant facial expressions as states over time. Detailed log - A text file or Excel file with the intensities of all facial expressions over time. To save extra options, like facial states, global gaze direction, valence and arousal values to the log file, select these options in the Data Export tab of the Settings window (File > Settings). Optionally, adjust the sample rate of the export file and select whether to include headers. Heart beat log - A text file or Excel file with the inter-beat interval data (the time intervals between individual heart beats). The Observer XT log - Choose this option if you want to import the analysis results in the annotation software The Observer® XT for further analysis. The screenshot below comes from The Observer sample project 'Child FaceReader'. In this project a 3-year old boy is observed during play with an online game. His face is filmed with a webcam, while the screen is captured with the Noldus screen capture device. The video of the boy's face was analyzed in FaceReader. The Observer log was exported from FaceReader and imported into The Observer XT. The screenshot shows the facial expressions on the time line. Work with FaceReader tip It is also possible to send the analysis results directly during the FaceReader analysis to The Observer XT, using the Noldus network communication program N-Linx. See FaceReader with The Observer XT in the FaceReader Help for details.

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Source: FaceReader 9 Quick Start Guide