Hot Issues,Trends,Discussions: Your face can speak a thousand words

*If you believe only words can communicate, think again, for scientists have claimed animated facial expressions may be more worthy.*

Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Germany found that humans are able to recognise facial expressions in motion far better than in a static photograph. “A facial expression can state a lot and we are able to classify an expression much better when it moves naturally rather than when it is frozen in a photograph,” they said. According to the study, one needs to see the expression at least for 100 milliseconds to understand it. If the visual sequence is shorter, our brain is less capable of interpreting. Some expressions rely on changes in head orientation while others on the complex deformation of facial parts, such as wrinkling our nose to signal disgust or a frown. “Facial expressions are a dynamic phenomenon and need to be investigated with the help of video sequences in order to get a better understanding,” said Dr Christian Wallraven, co-author of the study.

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