Facial Expression Enhancement Using a Waggle Ear-type Device Linked to Eyebrows: Evaluation of Impressions and Conveying Emotions

Facial expressions convey emotions. However, not all people are good at understanding such expressions in daily communication. To address this issue, we herein use “SUGO-MIMI,” a lightweight device that does not require a power source to expand facial expressions. SUGO-MIMI expands eyebrow movements by connecting the eyebrows to thin plates, imitating cat ears attached to the headband with wires. As a result of analyzing the facial expressions and questionnaire responses of the participants who watched videos of a person wearing SUGO-MIMI, we observed that SUGO-MIMI can amplify some emotions that are thought to be desirable to express and that females tended to have more positive impressions of the SUGO-MIMI than males. Furthermore, in our experiment of conveying facial expressions, the emotion denoting happiness was conveyed better when wearing SUGO-MIMI.