Emotion estimation from video footage with LSTM

Emotion estimation is a field that has been studied for a long time, and several approaches using machine learning models exist. This article presents BlendFER-Lite, an LSTM model that uses Blendshapes from the MediaPipe library to analyze facial expressions detected from a live-streamed camera feed. This model is trained on the FER2013 dataset and achieves 71% accuracy and an F1-score of 62%, meeting the accuracy benchmark for the FER2013 dataset while significantly reducing computational costs compared to current methods. For the sake of reproducibility, the code repository, datasets, and models proposed in this paper, in addition to the preprint, can be found on Hugging Face at: https://huggingface.co/papers/2501.13432. JEL Classification: D8, H51. MSC Classification: 35A01, 65L10, 65L12, 65L20, 65L70.