Getting the most out of your Online Emotion Research – How to get Good Quality Data
In this blog we give some tips on how to optimize your research with FaceReader Online by giving good instructions to your participants.
Supports most browser types
Participating in a FaceReader Online study is very easy: participants do not have to install anything, but just have to give access to their camera. The recordings are then transferred via a secure connection. The recorder supports both HTML5 and Flash, so it works in nearly all browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer/Edge, Safari). It also works on new android devices; however, this is not optimal (e.g. it is more difficult to keep the face steady visible with a mobile device). For the best results, we advise you to instruct participants to use Google Chrome on a PC.
Privacy by design
Sometimes people might not like the idea of giving access to their camera. So, make sure you inform people clearly of the goals of the study they will participate in. We also include a brief standard informed consent before the camera starts. Our service is compliant with the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), see our privacy policy here. If you would rather not have your clients or employees look at recordings of people, we also have an option where the recordings are not visible in the platform. Video recordings of individuals are deleted when a project finished (when the status is set to closed by the project administrator).
The importance of lighting
To make sure you get a good recording, try to instruct your participants in advance. For example, participants should avoid strong back lighting or lighting from one side (see image below). For more examples, see this interesting blog (part 1, part 2) that discusses lighting in the context of video conference calls (something everyone is now very familiar with). You (or your participants) can easily check out your lighting and camera information on a free webcam test website. Participants should also not move away from the camera or be eating during the recording. If you would like to receive a model instruction page, just send us an email. Do you want more tips? You can also have a look at some more general tips for optimizing facial expression analysis here.
Filter on data quality
FaceReader Online gives the recording a quality score based on the number of frames that were successfully analyzed. You can then use a filter to exclude low quality recordings (default is set at 4) from the results page. In addition, if you would like to further reduce the noise, you may want to do an additional check with those scoring below 6, or use more stringent exclusion criteria overall. If you have any questions or seek additional advice, please contact us .
