Post by Lucas Noldus

I recently had the pleasure to serve as an advisor on the course “Human Centered Green Infrastructure Analysis” taught by Dr. Zheng Chen at the College of Architecture and Urban Planning at Tongji University in Shanghai. In this course, students used FaceReader Online to investigate how people respond to various aspects of the urban environment. Seven student teams each chose a topic, made a series of photos of urban infrastructure, embedded those in an online survey, and used the survey in an experiment with participants, capturing their visual behavior and emotional response to the imagery. Each team produced an essay, a slide presentation and a 3-minute video. I was truly impressed by what the students achieved in a matter of weeks. The video clips also demonstrate the power of FaceReader Online, which allows you to perform gaze tracking and facial expression analysis on any computer equipped with a camera and a web browser. The software won’t activate the camera before permission is obtained from the participant and automatically deletes the anonymous facial recording after completion of the study, compliant with applicable privacy legislation (such as PIPL in China and GDPR in the EU). In their project “How to design better entrances”, Peer Otto Friedrich, Clemens Fruth and Xiang Li investigated how people perceive house entrances by combining subjective memory drawings with biometric data, including eye tracking and facial expression analysis. The study explored spatial elements that contribute to safety, orientation and invitation. If you have 3 minutes to spare: sit back, relax and enjoy the video!

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