Competitive affective gaming: winning with a smile

Human-computer interaction (HCI) is expanding towards natural modalities of human expression. Gestures, body movements and other affective interaction techniques can change the way computers interact with humans. In this paper, we propose to extend existing interaction paradigms by including facial expression as a controller in videogames. NovaEmötions is a multiplayer game where players score by acting an emotion through a facial expression. We designed an algorithm to offer an engaging interaction experience using the facial expression. Despite the novelty of the interaction method, our game scoring algorithm kept players engaged and competitive. A user study done with 46 users showed the success and potential for the usage of affective-based interaction in videogames, i.e., the facial expression as the sole controller in videogames. Moreover, we released a novel facial expression dataset with over 41,000 images. These face images were captured in a novel and realistic setting: users playing games where a player's facial expression has an impact on the game score.