emoTune
The mission
My sister has autism. When she started her American Sign Language class in high school, she knew that it would be a challenge; nonverbal communication was never her strength. She went into the class with the goal to improve. However, the class lacked the resources to help my sister with this skill. I took note and created emoTune; a personal coach for facial expression to help people like my sister.
​
It is important that we recognize neurodiversity along with the gifts and challenges that come with it. Although many of us take our communicative abilities for granted, I hope that this will help people reevaluate the importance of these skills. The app icon was made to reflect the confusion that many people experience with emotional expression.​
This app is currently part of a Minnetonka Research project. Your participation, although optional, would be greatly appreciated. You can choose how much time you would like to commit to the app, and even the lowest amount of time commitment would be a massive help. The deadline for sign-up is February 21st, 2025. If you are interested, read more about the project here.
Ok... but what exactly does emoTune do?
emoTune has a three step process for getting analysis of and feedback on your facial expressions.
​
1. Select an emotion to practice. You can pick from one of seven emotions: neutrality, happiness, sadness, surprise, fear, disgust, and anger. These are the seven universal emotions as recognized by psychologists.
​
2. Upload a picture of yourself. Snap a photo with the in-built camera function or upload a picture from your photo library. Make sure that the photo has your face in the middle while taking up most of the frame, and check that your face is well-lit; this will maximize the accuracy of your analysis. If you're worried about privacy, you don't have to be--emoTune does not have access to or collect these pictures in any way, nor does it give these pictures to any third parties. Read the privacy policy here.
​
3a. Get your analysis! emoTune's chatbot will automatically tell you which emotion you are portraying in the picture, but you can request a more detailed AI-powered analysis--and feedback on how to portray the emotion you wanted to practice--by pressing the question mark icon in the message bar.
​
3b. (Optional) If you're stuck... and you don't know how to implement the feedback the chatbot gave you, go to the help tab and you'll find an array of tutorial videos. Read more about them in our FAQ page.
About the home tab
The home tab is your main base of operations, so to speak. It contains the chat bot and the menu to select an emotion to practice. You can clear your conversation, request an analysis of your facial expression, or send custom messages using the text field.
About the picture tab
The picture tab allows you to upload pictures of yourself from the camera or your photo library. Before you submit a picture, ensure that your face is well-lit and that it is in the center of the picture. When you upload a picture from the camera, there will be a box--make sure that your face takes up the whole box. Following these guidelines will maximize the accuracy of the analysis.
About the help tab
The help tab is where you view demo videos, track how much time you have spent in the app (only you have access to this data), and view the tutorial for the app. Each expression--neutrality, happiness, sadness, surprise, fear, disgust, and anger--has been broken up into a few distinct changes of your facial features: e.g, raising your eyebrows or flaring your nostrils. The help tab has a set of these demo videos for each emotion, and that set includes videos for each individual feature change as well as what they look like when combined. Click on the button at the top of the screen with the clock symbol to view how much time you have spent practicing in emoTune, as well as the days where you have hit a practice goal of 10 minutes in one day.
