Newborns cannot talk, that’s why mothers pay such special attention to judge the baby’s feelings while it cries. It is generally hard to guess whether the baby is hungry or feeling some kind of pain. Making the task easier, here comes the new facial expression recognition software called Cope (Classification of Pain Expressions), developed by Dr Sheryl Brahnam of Missouri State of University.
It first makes use of facial-recognition techniques to capture and analyze aspects of baby’s features that give hints about its feelings: the expression and straining of the eyes, the setting of the lips, the furrowing of the brows, and so on. The software works using a neural- network learning algorithm and a database of 204 photographs taken of 26 infants when the pain was induced (by a pinprick used to draw blood for testing) or natural pain, normal expressions, etc.
The preliminary results show more than 90% accuracy. This software could be very helpful for neo- natal care nurses to figure out when a baby is in pain as against when it is hungry, or is, well, just being tough!
