Emoji-based communications derived from facial features during game play

A system for emoji-based communications derived from facial features, the system comprising:

• memory that stores:
• a vector-space established based on a plurality of facial expressions, each facial expression associated with a group of position vectors mapped based on facial features that each correspond to a dimension in the vector-space, and wherein the vector-space includes threshold conditions between different facial expressions, and
• a plurality of emojis in a lookup table, each emoji corresponding to a different one of the facial expressions;
• a camera that captures an image of a user during gameplay, the image captured when a gameplay status meets a predetermined gameplay milestone;
• a processor that executes instructions stored in the memory, wherein execution of the instructions by the processor:
• extracts facial features of the user from the image as captured when the gameplay status met the predetermined gameplay milestone;
• identifies a facial expression associated with the extracted facial features by comparing a query vector that maps the extracted facial features to a plurality of position vectors associated with the different facial expressions, wherein the identified facial expression has is identified based on proximity of a mapped position vector to the query vector and the threshold conditions;
• identifies one of the stored emojis in the lookup table as corresponding to the identified facial expression;
• and
• modifies the identified emoji based on the extracted facial features of the user;
• and
• a network interface that communicates over a communication channel, wherein the network interface transmits the emoji to at least one peer of the user over the communication channel, the at least one peer associated with the gameplay when the gameplay status met the predetermined gameplay milestone.

A tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium, having instructions encoded thereon, the instructions executable by a processor to perform a method for emoji-based communication, the method comprising:

• establishing a vector-space based on a plurality of facial expressions, each facial expression associated with a group of position vectors mapped based on facial features that each correspond to a dimension in the vector-space, and wherein establishing the vector-space includes establishing threshold conditions between different facial expressions;
• storing a plurality of emojis in a lookup table in memory, each emoji corresponding to a different one of the facial expressions;
• capturing an image of a user with a camera during gameplay, the image captured when a gameplay status meets a predetermined gameplay milestone;
• extracting facial features of the user from the captured image as captured when the gameplay status met the predetermined gameplay milestone;
• identifying a facial expression associated with the extracted facial features by comparing a query vector that maps the extracted facial features to a plurality of position vectors associated with the different facial expressions, wherein the facial expression is identified based on proximity of a mapped position vector to the query vector and the threshold conditions;
• identifying one of the stored emojis in the lookup table as corresponding to the identified facial expression;
• modifying the identified emoji based on the extracted facial features of the user;
• and
• transmitting the emoji to at least one peer of the user over a communication channel, the at least one peer associated with the gameplay when the gameplay status met the predetermined gameplay milestone.