Hyperrealistic facial expression generation application and its impact on the treatment of people suffering from Alexithymia

Abstract

Alexithymia is a disorder of the perception of emotions, that generates problems in describing feelings and distinguishing the physical states and emotions that they entail; It has been reported that those who suffer from this disorder present difficulties on a social level. The animation of virtual characters and the generation of digital faces has become a relevant topic in terms of work with emotions, allowing the design and development of different digital avatars that allow the expression of emotions in them, having various applications from medicine to entertainment. The main objective of this research was the development and implementation of an application that generates hyperrealistic facial expressions for the treatment of people suffering from Alexithymia, allowing them to practice the ability to read the emotions present in their environment and thus improve their skills. social. The aforementioned application was developed and applied to children and adolescents in an institution who had the aforementioned disorder, obtaining a relative improvement in the condition of the participants of between 1.3 and 1 in the indicators used to evaluate the impact.