Deep learning based facial expressions recognition system for assisting visually impaired persons

Abstract

In general, a good interaction including communication can be achieved when verbal and non-verbal information such as body movements, gestures, facial expressions, can be processed in two directions between the speaker and listener. Especially the facial expression is one of the indicators of the inner state of the speaker and/or the listener during the communication. Therefore, recognizing the facial expressions is necessary and becomes the important ability in communication. Such ability will be a challenge for the visually impaired persons. This fact motivated us to develop a facial recognition system. Our system is based on deep learning algorithm. We implemented the proposed system on a wearable device which enables the visually impaired persons to recognize facial expressions during the communication. We have conducted several experiments involving the visually impaired persons to validate our proposed system and the promising results were achieved.