NeuroEmo

NeuroEmo is an interactive brain–emotion device that visualizes human feelings through real-time AI emotion recognition. By mapping facial expressions to a physical, brain-shaped model with lights, motion, and playful feedback, the system turns complex neuroscience into a tangible experience—helping people see and understand how emotions travel through the brain.

Project Description

NeuroEmo is an interactive installation that transforms human emotion into a physical, multisensory experience. Using real-time camera input and AI emotion recognition, the system maps a person’s current emotional state—such as joy, sadness, or anger—onto a 3D brain-shaped model, where neural pathways and emotional circuits are visualized through dynamic lights, colors, and animated behaviors. Grounded in neuroscience, NeuroEmo narrates how different emotions are processed in the brain, from dopamine–driven “roller coasters of happiness” to hippocampal “storms of sadness” and amygdala “volcanic anger.” These internal neural processes are made visible, tangible, and playful through storytelling and sensory feedback, including mechanical gestures (such as dispensing candy for comfort or releasing bubbles in celebration) that reinforce brain–emotion interactions in a whimsical way. By externalizing the “invisible storms” of our inner emotional world, NeuroEmo helps audiences better understand their feelings, giving children and adults a novel way to see, feel, and learn how the brain constructs emotion—making neuroscience approachable, relatable, and delightfully human.

System Overiew
Stress Management
Faculty Lead
MCH

Prof. Ming-Chun Huang

Associate Professor, Duke Kunshan University

Contributors
IMG_2959

Xinyuan Lan

Undergrad Student, Duke Kunshan University

CDS

Dongsheng Cheng

Research Fellow, Duke Kunshan University

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