Activity: Making an Expression Mimic Bot

Making an Expression Detector – Overview

In this activity, we’re going to make an expression detector using Quarky. In the first part, we’re going to make a script in PictoBlox to detect our expression using the camera.

In the next part, we’re going to make a script to make Quarky mimic those expressions.

Let’s get started.

Let’s Code!

First, we’re going to make a script to detect the expressions.

Detecting the Face

Follow the steps below to detect expression in PictoBlox:

1. Open PictoBlox and create a New File.
2. Select the coding environment as Block Coding.
3. Add a when flag clicked block from the Events palette into the scripting area. Now, we need to turn on the camera of our device be it laptop/desktop or smartphone so that PictoBlox can detect our expression. For that, we’ll need the Face Detection extension.
4. To add the Face Detection extension, click the purple-colored Add Extension button in the bottom-left corner of the screen.
   Then, select the Face Detection extension to add it to your palette.
   
5. Add a turn () video on the stage with () % transparency block below the when flag clicked block. The default option is on and the transparency is 0%.
6. Add a () bounding box block below the turn () video on the stage with () % transparency block. The default option is to show the box. This block will track our face wherever we move it.
   
7. Add a forever block from the Control palette below the () bounding box block. Only the blocks inside the forever block will run continuously.
8. Add an analyse image from () block inside the forever block. This block will analyse our faces to detect our expressions.
   
9. Now, we’re going to make Tobi tell the expression that PictoBlox has detected. From the Looks palette, add a say () block below the analyse image from () block.
10. Inside the space of the say () block, drop a get expression of face () block. This block will figure out our expression and then the say block will make Tobi tell us the expression detected.
    

Click the green flag to run the script and have fun! If Tobi is in the center of the stage and your facial expressions are not detected properly, then move Tobi to the corner or from the analyse image from () block, select camera from the drop-down.

Save the file with the name Making an Expression Mimic Bot.

Quarky Mimics the Expression!

Now, let’s modify our script to make Quarky mimic our expression! Follow the simple step below:

1. In the same script, add an if block below the say () block. Using this block we’re going to check which expression has been detected.Let us first check for the happy expression.
2. Inside the white space of the if block, add an is expression of face () () block. happy is the default option so you don’t need to change anything.If the detected expression is happy, then Quarky must also be happy!
3. Go to the Display palette and drop a display () expression block inside the if block. happy is the default option so you don’t need to change anything here as well.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for sad, surprised, and angry expressions.
   

Click the green flag to run the script and have fun!

Assignment

Before you move on to the next lesson, a small assignment awaits you!

You must upload the PictoBlox program you created in this activity to the website. Submitting the assignment is a must in order to receive the certificate after completing the course.

Follow the steps below to upload your assignment:

1. Click on Browse.
2. Search and Select your saved Project file(.sb3) and Click Open.
3. Click on Upload to submit the assignment.

The file type allowed is the SB3 file generated from the PictoBlox program. The maximum file size allowed is 5 MB.

Good luck!