The overall aim of the SEWA project is to enable computational models for machine analysis of facial, vocal, and verbal behaviour in the wild.
The SEWA project already resulted in multiple benefits and is expected to continue growing, as technologies that can robustly and accurately analyse human facial, vocal and verbal behaviour and interactions in the wild, as observed by webcams in digital devices, would have profound impact on both basic sciences and the industrial sector.
• They could open up tremendous potential to measure behaviour indicators that heretofore resisted measurement because they were too subtle or fleeting to be measured by the human eye and ear. SEWA technology was used in a semi-automatic manner to track the temporal dynamics of smiles in elderly people and flag that behavioural biomarker of depression (Channel 4 “Old People’s Home for 4 Year Old”, 2017, 2018), which then became a basis for the UK EPSRC grant proposal AIDD: “AI- empowered identification of Depression and Dementia” in which three SEWA partners are involved (Prof. Pantic’s group, Prof. Schuller’s group, and RealEyes).
• Such technologies would also effectively lead to development of the next generation of efficient, seamless and user-centric human-computer interaction (affective multimodal interfaces, interactive multi-party games, and online services). This was recognised by Samsung Electronics, who visited SEWA Coordinator in January 2018 and decided to open a new Samsung AI Research Centre (SAIC) in Cambridge with the main aim of developing human-centric AI. SEWA Coordinator became the Research Director of SAIC in Cambridge in May 2018. SAIC Cambridge is now in negotiation with three SEWA beneficiaries to invest in common projects (Imperial College London, University of Augsburg, and RealEyes).
• Such technologies would have profound impact on business. For example, automatic market research analysis would become possible, which has been successfully showcased by SEWA partner RealEyes.
• Such technologies could also enable next generation healthcare technologies (e.g. remote monitoring of conditions like pain, anxiety and depression). As already said above, SEWA technology became a basis for the UK EPSRC grant proposal AIDD: “AI-empowered identification of Depression and Dementia” in which three SEWA partners are involved.