Using Generative Adversarial Networks for the synthesis of emotional facial expressions in virtual educational environments

The generation of emotional facial expressions using Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) has been widely researched, achieving significant advances in creating high-quality images. However, one of the main challenges remains the accurate transmission of complex and negative emotions, such as ange...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: William Villegas-Ch, Alexandra Maldonado Navarro, Araceli Mera-Navarrete
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025-03-01
Series:Intelligent Systems with Applications
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667305325000055
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1825206859767742464
author William Villegas-Ch
Alexandra Maldonado Navarro
Araceli Mera-Navarrete
author_facet William Villegas-Ch
Alexandra Maldonado Navarro
Araceli Mera-Navarrete
author_sort William Villegas-Ch
collection DOAJ
description The generation of emotional facial expressions using Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) has been widely researched, achieving significant advances in creating high-quality images. However, one of the main challenges remains the accurate transmission of complex and negative emotions, such as anger or sadness, due to the difficulty of correctly capturing the facial micro gestures that characterize these emotions. Traditional GAN architectures, such as StyleGAN and DCGAN, have proven highly effective in synthesizing positive emotions such as joy. However, they have limitations regarding more subtle emotions, leading to a higher rate of false negatives. In response to this problem, we propose fine-tuning the GAN discriminator. This tuning optimizes the discriminator’s ability to identify the minor details in facial expressions by using perceptual losses, allowing for better differentiation between the generated emotions, reducing classification errors, and improving precision in difficult-to-represent emotions. The results obtained in this study demonstrate a significant improvement in the system’s precision, especially in complex emotions. Precision for the anger emotion increased from 85.7% to 89.1%, and the number of false negatives was reduced from 16 to 10. Overall, precision for complex emotions exceeded 85%, substantially improving traditional solutions. These results demonstrate the potential of fine-tuning the GAN architecture for applications requiring more faithful and effective emotional interaction, significantly improving user experience across multiple domains.
format Article
id doaj-art-39d005ba32c84dd39bd980148e5b66b4
institution Kabale University
issn 2667-3053
language English
publishDate 2025-03-01
publisher Elsevier
record_format Article
series Intelligent Systems with Applications
spelling doaj-art-39d005ba32c84dd39bd980148e5b66b42025-02-07T04:48:31ZengElsevierIntelligent Systems with Applications2667-30532025-03-0125200479Using Generative Adversarial Networks for the synthesis of emotional facial expressions in virtual educational environmentsWilliam Villegas-Ch0Alexandra Maldonado Navarro1Araceli Mera-Navarrete2Escuela de Ingeniería en Ciberseguridad, Facultad de Ingenierías y Ciencias Aplicadas, Universidad de Las Américas, Redondel del Ciclista, Antigua Via a Nayon, Quito, 170125, Pichincha, Ecuador; Corresponding author.Maestría en Derecho Digital, Universidad de Las Américas, Redondel del Ciclista, Antigua Via a Nayon, Quito, 170125, Pichincha, EcuadorDepartamento de Sistemas, Universidad Internacional del Ecuador, Av. Simón Bolívar y Av. Jorge Fernández, Quito, 170411, Pichincha, EcuadorThe generation of emotional facial expressions using Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) has been widely researched, achieving significant advances in creating high-quality images. However, one of the main challenges remains the accurate transmission of complex and negative emotions, such as anger or sadness, due to the difficulty of correctly capturing the facial micro gestures that characterize these emotions. Traditional GAN architectures, such as StyleGAN and DCGAN, have proven highly effective in synthesizing positive emotions such as joy. However, they have limitations regarding more subtle emotions, leading to a higher rate of false negatives. In response to this problem, we propose fine-tuning the GAN discriminator. This tuning optimizes the discriminator’s ability to identify the minor details in facial expressions by using perceptual losses, allowing for better differentiation between the generated emotions, reducing classification errors, and improving precision in difficult-to-represent emotions. The results obtained in this study demonstrate a significant improvement in the system’s precision, especially in complex emotions. Precision for the anger emotion increased from 85.7% to 89.1%, and the number of false negatives was reduced from 16 to 10. Overall, precision for complex emotions exceeded 85%, substantially improving traditional solutions. These results demonstrate the potential of fine-tuning the GAN architecture for applications requiring more faithful and effective emotional interaction, significantly improving user experience across multiple domains.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667305325000055Generative adversarial networksEmotional expression synthesisFine-tuning discriminatorMicrogestures detection
spellingShingle William Villegas-Ch
Alexandra Maldonado Navarro
Araceli Mera-Navarrete
Using Generative Adversarial Networks for the synthesis of emotional facial expressions in virtual educational environments
Intelligent Systems with Applications
Generative adversarial networks
Emotional expression synthesis
Fine-tuning discriminator
Microgestures detection
title Using Generative Adversarial Networks for the synthesis of emotional facial expressions in virtual educational environments
title_full Using Generative Adversarial Networks for the synthesis of emotional facial expressions in virtual educational environments
title_fullStr Using Generative Adversarial Networks for the synthesis of emotional facial expressions in virtual educational environments
title_full_unstemmed Using Generative Adversarial Networks for the synthesis of emotional facial expressions in virtual educational environments
title_short Using Generative Adversarial Networks for the synthesis of emotional facial expressions in virtual educational environments
title_sort using generative adversarial networks for the synthesis of emotional facial expressions in virtual educational environments
topic Generative adversarial networks
Emotional expression synthesis
Fine-tuning discriminator
Microgestures detection
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667305325000055
work_keys_str_mv AT williamvillegasch usinggenerativeadversarialnetworksforthesynthesisofemotionalfacialexpressionsinvirtualeducationalenvironments
AT alexandramaldonadonavarro usinggenerativeadversarialnetworksforthesynthesisofemotionalfacialexpressionsinvirtualeducationalenvironments
AT aracelimeranavarrete usinggenerativeadversarialnetworksforthesynthesisofemotionalfacialexpressionsinvirtualeducationalenvironments