Facial recognition plays an important role in shaping our self-image and how we interact with others. As digital technology advances, exciting questions arise about how our changing facial features affect our sense of self and our relationships with society.
Shunichi Kasahara, a researcher at the Cybernetic Humanity Studio within the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), is currently investigating these questions. His research focuses on real facial features, exploring what happens when our faces change into someone else’s and another’s.
A sense of our identity
Kasahara and his colleagues have been investigating how our thinking is influenced by motor-visual interactions – the coordination between our body movements and the visual feedback we receive.
The research, published in the journal Nature Science Newsreveals that if we can control the movement of our own nature, our identity and our face remain unchanged. This shows that the perception of the user, or the feeling of control over our behavior, does not significantly affect how we use our facial expressions.
Personal identity limits
In order to evaluate these ideas, scientists conducted psychological tests using displays and cameras to determine the location of the “personal identity limit” and the factors that affect this limit.
Participants were seated in front of a screen that showed their face gradually changing to another face. At one point, participants were asked to press a button when they felt the image no longer looked like them. The experiment was conducted in two parts: morphing from self to other and from other to self.
“It’s like looking at your face in a mirror as you move it around and recognize yourself, but your face slowly changes to a point where you realize this isn’t you anymore,” Kasahara explained.
A strong sense of self
The researchers tested how different motion conditions – synchronous, asynchronous, and static – affected the extent of facial recognition.
Experts believe that social interaction will make participants more familiar with the image. However, the results were surprising.
Whether the gestures are synchronized or not, the range of face recognition remains the same. Furthermore, participants used self-images to identify more than moving pictures.
Interestingly, the direction of morphing – whether from self to other or vice versa – also affected participants’ perception of their own face size. They are more likely to recognize that their facial expressions when it goes from one self to another, instead of reflecting.
Overall, the findings suggest that our sensitivity to facial movements does not affect our ability to recognize facial expressions.
personal identity in the digital age
Consider the example of deep fake, which is essentially a type of asynchronous movement. When I’m still still but the image is moving, it creates an asynchronous state. Even in these fake situations, we can still feel our connection to ourselves,” Kasahara explained.
“This shows that even if we see a fake or manipulated version of our image, for example, someone else uses our face, we can still recognize that face. Our findings raise questions important about our sense of ourselves and our identity in the digital age.”
Testing the concept of our company
But what about that? How does our sense of identity affect our sense of control or authority? In collaboration with Dr. Wen Wen, a professor of science at Rikkyo University who specializes in research on the concept of companies, Kasahara did other research.
The aim is to investigate how self-recognition through facial expressions can affect the perception of controlling one’s movements.
Participants in the experiment saw their own face or someone else’s face on a screen, being able to interact with and control facial and head movements. They were asked to look at the screen for about 20 seconds while changing their facial expressions and head movements.
The face on the screen is completely controlled by the movements of the participant or by a combination of the participant and the researcher (full control vs. partial control).
After that, participants were asked how the faces on the screen looked like to them and how good their facial control was.
Facial expressions and eye recognition
The results are interesting: participants report a higher rating of the company on the “other face” than their own. Also, controlling another person’s face led to many different facial movements compared to controlling their own face.
“We gave the participants different faces, but they can control the facial movements of this face – similar to deep technology, where AI can transmit movements and other things. This AI technology allows us to go beyond the traditional experience of only looking in the mirror, allows us to challenge and analyze the relationship between facial movements and visual characteristics,” explained Kasahara.
“Based on previous research, one can expect that if I see my own face, I will feel a sense of control over it. On the other hand, if it is not my face, I can expect and it will be good for me because it is someone else’s face. That is an understandable expectation.”
However, Kasahara said, the results are different – when people see their own faces, they report the company’s low profile. On the other hand, they are more likely to feel selfish when they see someone else’s face.
These surprising results challenge our previous understanding of how we perceive ourselves in images.
Digital technology is shaping our sense of self
Kasahara emphasized that the acceptance of technology in society plays an important role in technological progress and human evolution.
“The relationship between technology and human evolution is ever-changing; we grow together. But concerns about some computer technology can lead to limitations. My goal is to help promote acceptance in society and improve our understanding of the ‘self’ in the context of human-computer integration technology,” he said.
As technology continues to evolve, so does our understanding of identity and control. This research opens up new avenues for exploring how digital technologies can shape our sense of self and how we cross the confusing boundaries between physical and digital identities.
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