Eye-tracking signals based affective classification employing deep gradient convolutional neural networks

Abstract

Utilizing biomedical signals as a basis to calculate the human affective states is an essential issue of affective computing (AC). With the in-depth research on affective signals, the combination of multi-model cognition and physiological indicators, the establishment of a dynamic and complete database, and the addition of high-tech innovative products become recent trends in AC. This research aims to develop a deep gradient convolutional neural network (DGCNN) for classifying affection by using an eye-tracking signals. General signal process tools and pre-processing methods were applied firstly, such as Kalman filter, windowing with hamming, short-time Fourier transform (SIFT), and fast Fourier transform (FTT). Secondly, the eye-moving and tracking signals were converted into images. A convolutional neural networks-based training structure was subsequently applied; the experimental dataset was acquired by an eye-tracking device by assigning four affective stimuli (nervous, calm, happy, and sad) of 16 participants. Finally, the performance of DGCNN was compared with a decision tree (DT), Bayesian Gaussian model (BGM), and k-nearest neighbor (KNN) by using indices of true positive rate (TPR) and false negative rate (FPR). Customizing mini-batch, loss, learning rate, and gradients definition for the training structure of the deep neural network was also deployed finally. The predictive classification matrix showed the effectiveness of the proposed method for eye moving and tracking signals, which performs more than 87.2% in accuracy. This research provided a feasible way to find more natural human-computer interaction through eye moving and tracking signals and has potential application on the affective production design process.