Colgate's Face Database currently consists of 192 human faces exhibiting a number of common expressions (we try to add new faces each semester). The expressions consist of 1) Neutral, 2) Angry, 3) Surprise, 4) Fear, 5) Sad, 6) Happy, and 7) Disgust. With the exception of neutral, all emotional expressions are conveyed subtly and naturally. Thus, each face in the database consists of 13 images (one neutral, and a subtle and natural expression of each emotion). The neutral expression was obtained by having participants engage in a standard theatre exercise that was designed to relax the facial muscles and "clear the mind". The emotional expressions were made in response to short movie clips (see Gross & Levenson, 1995 for further details). The database is designed to give workable faces where the hair can be easily removed in photoshop -- thus, most participants in the database will have their hair pulled back or pushed aside. Also, only males with minimal to no facial hair were allowed to participante and females were asked to remove any excessive make-up. All participants were asked to remove any jewelry in the vicinity of her/his face.

All images were gathered in the same lab room under constant lighting conditions using a Nikon D300 digital camera equipped with a Nikon 70-200 mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR lens at a fixed distance from the participant. The camera and lens were mounted on a tripod and each image was taken using auto-focus and a remote trigger to eliminate camera movement during image acquisition.

The database was initiated by a former undergraduate research assistant (Andrew Grego '11) who designed the current protocol for sampling the face images and gathered a large proportion of the images in the database. Other students that also contributed to increasing and/or maintaining the database include Liz Paulino '11, Mai Duang '11, Damien Bono-DiClemente '11, and Kelsie Anson '13.

The entire database is made freely available to facilitate the scientific exploration of how human faces are processed, encoded, and ultimately represented within the brain. Should you use our database, we only ask that you reference the database in any publications.

Download the database: contact: bchansen@colgate.edu

Gross, J.J. & Levenson, R.W. (1995). Emotion elicitation using films. Cognition and Emotion, 9, 97-108.