HSE University at VK Fest: VR Games and Emotion Recognition
On July 13-14, 2024, the annual large-scale VKontakte festival took place at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium. HSE University, as usual, participated in the event. The university's tent featured a variety of activities, including emotion recognition challenge, quizzes about artificial intelligence, IT career testing, a smile detector, VR gaming, and a blue tractor equipped with a smart sprinkler system.
Analysing Experiences
For two days, the atmosphere at the HSE University tent was filled with positive emotions, which the staff of HSE Centre for Cognition & Decision Making could easily recognize. The researchers created FaceReader software that could analyse facial expressions and objectively assess human emotions.
The Centre’s staff demonstrated how these technologies are developed today and how they can be applied. ‘We use them for research purposes,’ said Anna Shepelenko, Junior Research Fellow at the Centre. ‘For example, we determine how emotions are related to charitable behaviour. We show different videos on this topic to our subjects and analyse their emotions based on their facial expressions. There are various circumstances and types of behaviour that are linked to our emotions, and when we use such affective computing technologies, we can identify the connection between our emotional state and behaviour.’
At VK Fest, guests had the opportunity to compete with FaceReader in recognizing human emotions and win prizes for their accuracy. ‘We also offered our guests the chance to play pantomime and describe various situations using emotions,’ added Anna Shepelenko.
‘No Smiling’
While one section of the tent was dedicated to demonstrating emotions, another one had a ‘no smiling’ rule, which was closely monitored by a detector.
‘Initially, this project was implemented for the filming a web show Medium Quality Production. During the show, the participants were not allowed to laugh or even smile. We developed a neural network that analyses video recording from several cameras, and if someone smiles, we immediately show them in close-up,’ explained Mikhail Moiseev, Research Assistant at the MIEM Laboratory of the Internet of Things and Cyber-Physical Systems.
The Way to Science
The HSE Centre for Cognition & Decision Making, in collaboration with the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, presented their project ‘I Chose Science’ at the festival. Alexandra Dolgoarshinnaya, Junior Research Fellow at the Centre, is a member of the project team.
‘This is an entertaining popular science content that aims to promote the lifestyle of scientists and attract young people to research,’ she explained.
Blue Tractor
The festival guests were also introduced to a branded blue tractor equipped with a smart sprinkler system, created as part of a student start-up project.
‘This special agricultural machine, known as sprayer, disperses various liquids, including chemical solutions for weed control. However, the problem is that these chemicals often end up on crops,’ said Elir Nabiyev, a third-year student of the Business Administration programme of HSE Graduate School of Business. ‘My project involves installing cameras and computers onto the sprayer bar, allowing the system to automatically detect weeds and activate the appropriate sprayer.’ The working prototype of this innovative solution was designed and created by MIEM students, and it was showcased at the ATM Congress 2024 international conference in Abu Dhabi.
Virtual Reality Gaming
A VR game became another popular attraction at the HSE University tent. ‘The participants fight the enemy, perform various tasks, and defeat the boss. All this, of course, takes place in virtual reality, providing maximum immersion,’ shared Nikita Kuznetsov, a first-year master's student in Design (‘System Game Design’ track). The students plan to continue developing the game by creating new levels and designing more challenging enemies, eventually launching it on gaming platforms.
The guests of the HSE University tent shared their impressions of the event.
Elizaveta Maryina
— This is my first time at VK Fest, I came with a friend who had been here before. She liked it and this time she invited me to come as well. At the HSE tent, I participated in a contest where you had to try not to laugh while watching memes. My friend didn't succeed, but I did and I won stickers with the HSE University logo. They are very cute!
Diana Kosheleva
— I feel great today. This is my first time at this festival. At the HSE tent, we tried to guess the emotions of people without them speaking. We did well and I won a T-shirt. I'm really happy about that.
Anastasia Lipina
— I came to VK Fest from Tula. At the HSE tent, I took part in a competition and won. The atmosphere is great, and I really enjoy everything here. There are a lot of positive people around, the weather is nice, and the mood is fantastic.
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