The role of image size in the recognition of conversational facial expressions

Facial expressions can be used to direct the flow of a conversation as well as to improve the clarity of communication. The critical physical differences between expressions can, however, be small and subtle. Clear presentation of facial expressions in applied settings, then, would seem to require a large conversational agent. Given that visual displays are generally limited in size, the usage of a large conversational agent would reduce the amount of space available for the display of other information. Here, we examine the role of image size in the recognition of facial expressions. The results show that conversational facial expressions can be easily recognized at surprisingly small image sizes.