A furrowed brow, a beaming smile, a twitch of the nose – our face is talking every second, even if we are not saying anything. It can produce more than 10,000 different expressions – with just eight facial muscles.
US psychologist Paul Ekman developed the Facial Action Coding System, known as FACS for short. FACS lists every muscle and its movement potential. According to this scientific approach, the emotion behind each and every facial expression can be read. Ekman’s theory has assumed major influence world-wide, but particularly in the United States where many airports are patrolled by specially trained FACS security forces. Their task is to recognize potential criminals through facial analysis. But how clearly can facial expressions be decyphered? And in future will even cameras be able to read them?
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