Activity 5: Emotional Interaction

    FaceAnalyzer: Age, Gender is an app that can analyze age and  emotions  from  the photo  of  the faces  and have  a  graph of emotions. It is recommended for iOS 9.0, iPhone 6, iPhone SE, iPad Air or later. The developer is MONOPOLEAPPS K.K., indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data. It has size of 26.3 MB and age rating of 4+. Languages used in this app are English and Japanese. This kind of app typically use algorithms to detect facial attributes and make predictions based on them.

HOW THE FACEANALYZER: AGE, GENDER APP WORKS?

1. Open the App: Launch the "FaceAnalyzer: Age, Gender" app on your iOS device.

2. Choose Picture Source: The app will prompt you to choose a source for the picture. You'll have two options:

• Camera: If you select this option, the app will open your device's camera for you to take a live picture.
• Gallery: If you choose this option, the app will direct you to your phone's gallery where you can select a photo.

3. Face  Detection  and  Cropping: Once you have selected  or taken  a  photo, the  app  will automatically detect faces and prompt you to crop the image to ensure the face is clear and centered.

4. Facial Recognition: After cropping the image, the app will process the facial features using its facial recognition technology. It may take a moment (it will show ads) to analyze the image.

5.Display Results:

• The app will display the results of the analysis, including the estimated age and gender of the person in the photo.
• Additionally, it will generate a graph showing the emotions detected on the uploaded picture.

6. Save the Result: Once you've reviewed the results, you'll have the option to save a copy of the analyzed image. The app may provide options for saving or sharing the result.

        

 

How many emotions does it recognize? 

    It acknowledges eight distinct emotional states, namely sadness, anger, happiness/joy, fear, neutrality, contempt, disgust, and surprise.

How well the app detects the  emotion  you  were  expressing?

    It appears to accurately identify joy and anger, as evidenced by the congruence between the stated emotions and the corresponding results. However, in the case of sadness, while the emotion was expressed, there is no specific result provided. Additionally, the detection of other emotions such as disgust, surprise, and fear also yield mixed outcomes, with some emotions being accurately detected while others do not yield any conclusive result.

Does facial hair make it more  difficult  for  the  app  to recognize an emotion? 

    It appears that facial hair may indeed pose a challenge for the app's accurate recognition of  emotions.  While  the  app  successfully  identifies  certain  emotions  such  as  joy  and  anger regardless of the presence of facial hair, the detection of sadness and fearseems to be affected when facial hair is present. In instances where facial hair is involved, the app's ability to discern specific emotions like sadness and fear appears to be compromised, possibly indicating that facial hair could indeed introduce complexity in the recognition process.

What ethical issues does  facial  recognition  raise?  Has the app provided sufficient information as to what it does with the photos taken of people’s faces?

    Concerns about privacy, surveillance, consent, accuracy, function creep, and the potential to curtail freedom are some of the ethical issues that arise with facial recognition technology. These  concerns  include  invasions  of  privacy  rights,  misuse  of  surveillance  capabilities, discriminatory biases, lack of consent and control over personal data, misidentifications due to inaccurate data, unchecked expansion of use, and restricting of free speech and association. Regulation, accountability, openness, and public involvement are necessary to reduce these worries and guarantee the moral and appropriate application of facial recognition technology.

    The developer is MONOPOLEAPPS K.K., indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data. The app appears to have provided sufficient details regarding the handling of photos taken of individuals' faces. The privacy policy outlines measures to manage personal information appropriately, including rules for collection, usage, and disclosure. It assures users that personal information, including face data, is not stored, used, disclosed, or retained by the app or its servers. Additionally, the policy emphasizes compliance with laws and continuous improvement of personal information protection policies. Users are also provided with a contact email for inquiries or concerns regarding personal information management. Therefore, the app appears to be transparent about its practices regarding facial data and privacy.