Face for Interface

Abstract

The human face is involved in an impressive variety of different activities. It houses the majority of our sensory apparatus—eyes, ears, mouth, and nose—allowing the bearer to see, hear, taste, and smell. Apart from these biological functions, the human face provides a number of signals essential for interpersonal communication in our social life. The face houses the speech production apparatus and is used to identify other members of the species; it regulates conversation by gazing or nodding and interprets what has been said by lip reading. It is our direct and naturally preeminent means of communicating and understanding somebody’s affective state and intentions on the basis of the shown facial expression (Lewis & Haviland-Jones, 2000). Personality, attractiveness, age, and gender also can be seen from someone’s face. Thus, the face is a multi-signal sender/receiver capable of tremendous flexibility and specificity. In general, the face conveys information via four kinds of signals listed in Table 1.