Face Recognition Technology and Emotional Intelligent Architecture: A New Approach toward Visual Perception of Intelligent Building Façades

Emotions constitute a major part of human existence, social interactions influence on decision-making, experiences and most of all the social interactions and communications with other persons, so revealing its various aspects and its recognition are very important. The aim of Emotional Intelligent Architecture (EIA) is designing the spaces in which they can influence psychological states and emotions by using physical factors such as geometry, light, temperature, sound and smart materials. Emotional intelligent building can show people's sense of presence in various forms, and provide other issues such as entertainment, care, health and safety for users of the space. There are several key challenges in emotional intelligent building design. One of these challenges is to find the person's emotional state at the moment, and to establish a mutual communication between people and space is yet another challenge. Moreover, physical strength, electrical components, light intensity control as well as user safety during use of space are some of the important factors that affect the emotional intelligent building design. Producing visual qualities (pleasure and aesthetics) and development of a scale control software that can be re-usable in infrastructure are other important issues. As the final point, increasing the capacity of visitor’s interactions should be considered as a key point in intelligent building design. So, this study seeks to devise a relationship between human and architectural space in order to create a sensible balance between these two items. For this purpose the role of advanced technologies has been investigated. According to the studies, in order to achieve a building intelligent façade based on emotions of visitors, the best solution would be use of facial recognition technology. Researchers generally use two methods for classification of feelings. In this study we use arousal-attraction two-dimensional space. The vertical axis in arousal-attraction chart shows the active and inactive feeling, and the horizontal axis shows a positive or negative sense. In this study, facial expressions of 44 subjects (22 males and 22 females) has been evaluated. The mean age of participants was 18-28 years. Facial expressions of the subjects have been captured while viewing various geometry of an intelligent façade. Then five emotional states have been evaluated according to arousal-attraction chart including: pleasant, unpleasant, comfort, surprise and neutral, using three methods, i.e. questionnaires, recording video and image processing. The results indicate that people have the same emotions while viewing the intelligent façade with various geometry of the openings. After feature extraction, classification and interpretation, emotional states associated with each image were identified for different groups. Afterward certain emotional categories were defined for each group. The result also shows that recognition of user's emotions by two methods of questionnaire and image processing are approximately the same and in 65 present of cases are completely matched. Finally, the model for smart change of the façade that is appropriate for the people who visit the space was provided. It can be concluded that Emotional Intelligent Architecture (EIA) can create a suitable relationship between design and human and can help the designers to create the facades are appropriate for human psychological states.