facetype

Facetype is an experimental project which combines type design, speculative linguistics, and creative coding to produce an emotionally-sensitive variable font controlled by facial gestures. When we communicate with text, we effectively mute all non-verbal communicators in exchange for a crystal lised copy of spoken language. Facial expressions are visual signals typically used to modify verbal communication and establish empathy. This project links a variable font with an open-source AI that can detect and measure facial expressions in real-time. The font contains 5 distinct yet continuous styles that attempt to graphically represent 5 different facial gestures; happy, surprised, sad, angry, and neutral. The gestural interface allows the user to navigate through the font using only facial expressions. FaceType puts the ‘face’ back into typeface.