Built on 50 Years of Emotion Science
EchoPitch goes far beyond basic mood detection. It's powered by the same breakthrough emotion research used by the FBI, Fortune 500 companies, and clinical psychologists for over 45 years.
FACS: The Alphabet of Human Expression
The Facial Action Coding System (FACS) was developed by psychologists Paul Ekman and Wallace Friesen at the University of California San Francisco. It is the most comprehensive and scientifically validated system for describing and measuring human facial movement.
FACS defines 44 Action Units (AUs) — each corresponding to the activation of a specific facial muscle or muscle group. AU6 is the cheek raiser (genuine smile marker). AU4 is the brow lowerer (concentration or concern). AU17 is the chin raiser (doubt or suppression). Every human emotional expression is a combination of these units.
EchoPitch tracks all 44 Action Units in real time during your practice sessions — at multiple frames per second — giving a precise, objective reading of your facial emotional expression throughout your presentation.
Key Action Units
Inner brow raise
Surprise, worry, sadness
Brow lowerer
Concentration, anger, concern
Cheek raiser
Genuine smile marker (Duchenne)
Lip corner puller
Happiness, social smile
Dimpler
Contempt, polite smile
Chin raiser
Doubt, suppression
Lip tightener
Anger, determination
Blink
Attention, cognitive load
Valence
Negative → Positive
Is the emotional state pleasant or unpleasant? High valence = confidence, engagement, openness.
Arousal
Calm → Activated
What is the energy level? High arousal = excited or anxious. Low arousal = relaxed or disengaged.
Dominance
Submissive → Controlled
Does the person feel in control? Low dominance during presentations signals anxiety and loss of authority.
VAD: Three Dimensions of Emotional State
Once FACS analysis has identified which Action Units are active, EchoPitch maps these combinations onto the Valence-Arousal-Dominance (VAD) model — a three-dimensional representation of emotional state developed by psychologist Albert Mehrabian.
For presentation coaching, Dominance is the most critical dimension. Low Dominance — appearing controlled or submissive — is the most accurate signal of presentation anxiety and is directly associated with how audiences perceive speaker confidence.
EchoPitch tracks your Dominance score second by second, identifying the moments when your confidence drops and correlating them with delivery patterns — helping you understand what triggers your anxiety peaks.
Multi-Modal Signal Analysis
FACS and VAD provide the emotional picture. EchoPitch combines these with voice and language analysis to give a complete view of your presentation performance.
Facial signal analysis
44 FACS Action Units tracked in real time. Mapped to VAD coordinates. Confidence, engagement, and anxiety markers identified per second.
Voice and pace analysis
Words per minute measured against optimal ranges. Volume consistency tracked. Pitch variation analysed for monotone indicators.
Language and content
Filler word count and frequency. Sentence completion rate. Structural adherence — are you covering what you planned?
Built by Cavefish — the Emotional AI Company
EchoPitch is powered by Cavefish’s EchoDepth platform — the same emotional intelligence infrastructure used in enterprise settings including financial services vulnerability detection, defence sector human reliability assessment, and elite sports performance monitoring. EchoDepth has been assessed and validated across these domains before being applied to presentation coaching.
Cavefish is a UK-based AI company based in Cardiff, Wales. Its FACS implementation tracks all 44 Action Units in real time, across a range of lighting conditions and camera types.
Learn more about Cavefish EchoDepth →See the Science in Action
Record a practice session and see your FACS confidence score, VAD emotion tracking, and delivery metrics in real time.
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