Innovative solutions for behavioral research
FaceReader™
Tool for automatic analysis of facial expressions
Quick Start Guide
Version 8
Information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a
commitment on the part of Noldus Information Technology bv. The software described in
this document is furnished under a license agreement. The software may be used or copied
only in accordance with the terms of the agreement.
Copyright © 2018 Noldus Information Technology bv. All rights reserved. No part of this
publication may be reproduced, transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, or
translated into any other language in whole or in part, in any form or by any means, without
the written permission of Noldus Information Technology bv.
FaceReader is a trademark of VicarVision bv. The Observer XT is a registered trademark of
Noldus Information Technology bv. Other product names are trademarks or registered
trademarks of their respective companies.
Documentation: Olga Krips.
December 2018
Noldus Information Technology bv.
International headquarters
Wageningen, The Netherlands
Telephone: +31-317-473300
Fax: +31-317-424496
E-mail: info@ noldus.nl
For addresses of our other offices and support, please see our
website www.noldus.com.
Up and running quickly 3
Up and running quickly
This Quick Start Guide guides you through the main steps to analyze facial expressions with
FaceReader. Only the most basic features are addressed. Inevitably, some features that may
be vital to your application are not discussed. You can find additional information in the
FaceReader Help.
general information
The first part of the Quick Start Guide contains general information on using FaceReader.
Follow the instructions to setup your system, install FaceReader and to analyze the facial
expressions.
You can extend your FaceReader license with a number of modules.
project analysis module
The Project Analysis Module allows you to create groups of participants based on
independent variable values like age and gender, and to analyze average expression values
per group. In addition to this, you can view the stimulus video together with the video of the
test participant’s face and the FaceReader analysis.
The second part of this Quick Start Guide describes the Project Analysis Module.
4 Up and running quickly
other modules
FaceReader also has the following other modules:
Action Unit Analysis Module
To analyze a set of 20 action units of the Facial Action Coding System (FACS). These are the
action units that are most commonly used.
Remote PPG Module
To estimate the heart rate and heart rate variability of the subject in front of the camera by
means of remote photoplethysmography (RPPG). This is a method based on the fact that
changes in blood volume due to pressure pulses cause small changes in the reflectance of
the skin.
Up and running quickly 5
Consumption Behavior Module
To analyze consumption behaviors like Taking a bite and Chewing. Please note that the
Consumption Behavior Module is experimental.
more information?
See the FaceReader Help that opens when you press F1 in the program. It can also be accessed
in the Windows apps screen, and can be downloaded from www.noldus.com/downloads.
Support
If you encounter problems, see www.noldus.com/support-center for a help desk in your area.
Note that if you send us videos showing people's faces, you should have permission from
those people that you can use the video for that purpose and you may need to sign a form
granting consent for us to use those videos.
6 Physical setup
Physical setup
The physical setup of your experiment is crucial for an accurate analysis with FaceReader. We
give the following general guidelines:
 Place the camera in front of the test participant and slightly below eye level. Make sure
your camera provides images with good contrast and brightness.
 Good lighting is crucial. Avoid direct light, reflections and shadows on the face. Make
sure the lighting on the face comes directly from the front, for example by placing the
setup in front of a window. If necessary, use lights on either side of the monitor, or a
professional photo light to increase light intensity, or to compensate for unwanted light
sources.
Install FaceReader 7
Install FaceReader
To install FaceReader
1. Insert the FaceReader installation USB stick into your computer.
2. Double-click the file FaceReader 8 Setup.exe.
3. Select the language for the interface. You have the choice between Chinese (simplified)
and English.
4. As Installation type, select Standard.
5. If you bought one of the webcams that are supported with FaceReader, select it in the
Drivers and Tools field.
6. Follow the rest of the instructions on your screen to install FaceReader.
To install the Stimulus Presentation Tool (Project Analysis Module only)
If you have the Project Analysis Module, you need the Stimulus Presentation Tool to present
stimuli automatically. To install it:
1. Double-click the file Stimulus Presentation Tool 3 Setup.exe.
2. Select the language for the interface. You have the choice between Chinese (simplified)
and English.
3. As Installation type, select Standard.
4. Follow the rest of the instructions on your screen to install the Stimulus Presentation Tool.
8 Work with FaceReader
Work with FaceReader
setup
1. Dependent on your license, do one of the following:
- If you have a hardware key, insert it into the computer and open FaceReader.
- If you have site licenses, open FaceReader, choose Start with site license and log in.
2. Create a new Project (File > New > Project). Give the project a name and select a location
to store it, or accept the default location.
Work with FaceReader 9
3. Choose Participant > Add Participant. Enter a name or identification code for the
participant.
4. The gender and age of your
participants are added as
independent variables and
areautomaticallyestimated
by FaceReader. To select the
age and gender manually,
double-click the participant
name. click on the pencil
button next to the independent variable to enter the values.
5. Add one or more analyses for each participant and choose to analyze from images, video,
or live from your camera. To do so, select the participant for which you want to add an
analysis in the Project Explorer. click on the Video, Camera or Image button on the toolbar
to add the appropriate analysis. It is not possible to mix image analyses with camera or
video analyses.
To carry out a camera analysis, select
the option Use as default camera if
you always use this camera. To record
audio, select your microphone.
Optionally, select Record to create a
video file of the test participant’s
face. The video will always be saved at
a frame rate of 15 frames per second.
10 Work with FaceReader
To add multiple video analyses to a participant, right-click the participant’s name, select
Add Multiple Video Analyses, and select your videos.
analyze
1. Click on the magnifying glass button next to an analysis to open it.
2. Check the options for this analysis in the Settings window in the bottom-left corner of the
analysis window.
Work with FaceReader 11
To create default settings for each new analysis, choose File > Settings. Open the tab
Default Analysis Settings and make your selection.
See the FaceReader Help for an explanation of the options. Press F1 in the program to
open it.
important If you select the Baby Face model, Facial expressions are not available as
analysis output. You will obtain Action Unit intensities. See Action Unit Module in the
FaceReader Help for more information.
3. Click on the Start analysis button to carry out the analysis.
12 Work with FaceReader
tip To analyze all analyses at once, click on
the Start batch analysis button on the
toolbar.
important We recommend to close all
visualization windows before you start
batch analysis. Bear in mind that carrying
out batch analysis on a high number of long videos with a high resolution and frame rate
may cause problems.
4. The Image quality bar should cross both dashed lines. If this is not the case, improve
lighting or reposition your camera.
output
FaceReader displays a number of windows with graphical and tabular output. The numbers
below correspond to the ones in the figure on page 14.
Important notes
 Not all visualization options may be available by default. If you do not see some of the
options described in this Quick Start Guide, choose File > Settings > Analysis Options and
select all options.
 If you selected the Baby Face model, not all output is available. See the FaceReader Help
for more information.
Work with FaceReader 13
Procedure
1. Click on one of the buttons in the Analysis Visualization window to show, for example,
the key points in the face or the Facial States.
2. To switch windows, click on the Select window button in the upperright
corner of one of the windows and make your selection. See
Analysis windows on page 14 for a short description of the options.
3. To zoom, or to copy or save graphs, click on one of the icons on the
window toolbar.
4. To show more windows, click on the Split/Unsplit button in the
upper-right corner of one of the windows.
14 Work with FaceReader
tip If you notice the test participant shows a bias towards some facial expressions, use one
of the calibration methods to correct for that. See Analyze Facial Expressions/ Calibrate
FaceReader in the FaceReader Help for details.
Analysis windows
For the upper windows you can choose between:
 Analysis Visualization – Click on a button on the left to view how FaceReader analyzes
the face.
 Subject Characteristics – With, for example, the estimated age and gender.
 Facial States – Whether, for example, mouth or eyes are open or closed.
 Monitor Identity – If you previously added participant faces to the database, FaceReader
shows the test participant’s identify.
 Expression Intensity – A chart that displays which of the facial expressions show up in
the face.
 Expression Summary – A pie chart with the distribution of the facial expressions.
 Circumplex Model of Affect – A chart in which emotions are described in a twodimensional
circular space, containing arousal on the vertical axis and valence on the
horizontal axis.
Work with FaceReader 15
 Action Unit Intensity – Available with the Action Unit Module.
 Heart rate - Available with the Remote PPG Module.
For the lower windows you can choose between the line charts:
 Timeline – An overview of the facial expressions, and facial states on a timeline.
 Valence Line Chart – The valence indicates whether the emotional status of the test
participant is positive or negative.
 Arousal Line Chart – Arousal indicates whether the test participant is active or not active.
 Expression Line Chart – A line chart with the facial expression intensities over time.
 Head Orientation Line Chart – The head orientation in X, Y and Z direction on a time line.
 Heart Rate and Variability Line Chart – Available with the Remote PPG Module.
See FaceReader’s Output in the FaceReader Help for a full description of the analysis
windows.
export
To export your data, choose File > Export. Choose to export the results of the analysis,
participant, or entire project. You have the following options:
 State log – A text file with the dominant facial expressions as states over time.
 Detailed log – A text file with the intensities of all facial expressions over time.
To save extra options, like facial states, global gaze direction, valence and arousal values
to the log file, select these options in the Data Export tab of the Settings window (File >
Settings).
Optionally, adjust the sample rate of the export file and select whether to include
headers.
16 Work with FaceReader
 The Observer XT log – Choose this option if you want to import the analysis results in the
annotation software The Observer® XT for further analysis.
tip It is also possible to send the analysis results directly during the FaceReader analysis
to The Observer XT, using the Noldus network communication program N-Linx. See
FaceReader with The Observer XT in the FaceReader Help for details.
Project Analysis Module 17
Project Analysis Module
setup
The general procedure to set up an experiment with FaceReader also applies to the Project
Analysis Module. The Project Analysis Module contains the following extra options:
1. Independent Variables - The independent variables Age and Gender are present by
default. Choose Project > Independent Variable > Add Independent Variable to add more
independent variables, like whether the participants saw the commercial before, or their
native language.
Double-click Independent Variables under a participant name to score them. Age and
Gender can be estimated by FaceReader, or entered manually.
2. Participant Groups – Create participant groups (Participant Group > Add Participant
Group) based on the values of the independent variables. For example, create groups
based on age, gender, or previous experience of the participants with the commercial.
18 Project Analysis Module
3. Stimuli and Event Markers – Define stimuli or event markers (Project menu) to mark
episodes of interest. Stimuli have a fixed duration and can be linked to a video or image to
show to the test participants.
Note
Analyses with the Baby Face model are not included in project analysis.
stimulus presentation tool
Use the stimulus presentation tool to automatically show the stimuli to the test
participants and synchronize them with the analyses.
important In a two computer setup, synchronize the computer clock times with a time
server. See Synchronize computers with a network time protocol in the FaceReader Help how
to do so.
On the computer with FaceReader
1. Choose File > Settings > Data Export and under External Communication (API and
Stimulus Presentation Tool) select the checkbox Enable External Control.
2. To add tests, open the Tests tab in the bottom pane of the Project Explorer. Then click on
the Add test button.
3. Select the camera and the stimuli to show to the test participants.
Optionally, choose to let participants enter their own name, age and gender and
randomize the presented stimuli.
Project Analysis Module 19
On the test participant computer
1. Start the Stimulus Presentation Tool and follow the instructions to connect with the
FaceReader computer.
2. Select a test and click Start.
3. Fill in the participant details and click Start again, or let the participant do this. The test
and analysis start.
20 Project Analysis Module
analyze
Participants are automatically added when you use the stimulus presentation tool. Also,
analyses are automatically carried out. Watch the Image quality bar when the test runs. The
bar should cross both dashed lines. If this is not the case, improve lighting or reposition your
camera.
Optionally, score event markers during the analysis.
output
Apart from the general FaceReader output options (page 12), the Project Analysis Module has
the following output:
Numerical Group Analysis
The numbers correspond to the ones in the figure on page 21.
1. Choose Participant Group > Open Numerical Group Analysis to calculate absolute
expression intensities for participant groups.
Alternatively, click on the Open Numerical Group Analysis button on the toolbar.
2. Choose stimuli or event markers from the lists on the toolbar to get the results per
stimulus or event marker.
3. Optionally choose Relative from the Result Type list on the toolbar to calculate
expression intensities relative to averages in another part of the analysis.
4. Set the episode from step 3 in the Project Analysis Settings window and then select the
stimulus or event marker from the list on the toolbar [2].
5. Click a participant group or stimulus name to perform a t-tests on the expression
intensities. A colored cell indicates a significant difference. An open triangle indicates
P<0.05. A closed triangle indicates P<0.01.
6. Choose Export from the toolbar to export the numerical group analysis results for
participants or groups.
Project Analysis Module 21
7. The bottom window shows bar graphs or box plots of expression intensities, valence, or
arousal for the selected participant groups.
Temporal Group Analysis
The numbers correspond to the ones in the figure on page 22.
1. Choose Participant Group > Open Temporal Group Analysis to view the stimulus video
together with a participant video and the analysis for the participant group.
2. Select a stimulus from the list on the toolbar.
3. Select a participant and analysis in the Analysis Visualization window.
4. Optionally choose Relative from the Result Type list on the toolbar to calculate
expression intensities relative to the average intensities in another episode. Set the
episode in the Project Analysis Settings window [4 in picture on page 21] and select the
stimulus from the list on the toolbar [2].
22 Project Analysis Module
5. The bottom window shows absolute or relative expression intensities, valence, or arousal
for the participant group over time, or a pie chart of absolute average expressions.