Comparison of Facial Expressions of Laughter Appearing in Movie Remakes Using Automatic Smile-Detection Software

Abstract

In order to consider facial expressions of laughter in relation to underlying mental processes, we have been attempting to use remake movies. In this study, we introduced automatic smile-detection software so as to evaluate the strength of laughter objectively. First, the performance of the automatic smile-detection software was examined by a questionnaire-style survey in 10 subjects aged between 19 and 25. Second, from 23 original-remake movie pairs, we extracted 37 facial expressions of laughter for analysis. Measured strengths of facial expressions of laughter of corresponding scenes of original and remade were close to each other except few exceptions. This result suggests that the smile-detection software is reasonably accurate, and facial expressions of laughter at the same underlying context are always similar even though backgrounds of movie production are different.