The thermal dimension of psychophysiological and emotional responses revealed by thermal infrared imaging

Interpersonal communication and relationships rely on the continuous assessment of the psychophysiological state of the interlocutor. The thermal infrared imaging has been demonstrated to be a reliable tool for the non-invasive contactless evaluation of vital signs, psychophysiological responses and emotional states. The use of this technique is quickly spreading in many fields, from social and developmental psychology to the psychometrics; or from the continuous monitoring of vital signs and stress up to the human-machine interaction. The state of the art of thermal infrared imaging in psychophysiology and in the assessment of emotional states is discussed to provide insights about its potentialities and limits, with special emphasis to the still open issues for image processing and real-time data analysis.