Work

From Cues to Engagement: A Comprehensive Survey and Holistic Architecture for Computer Vision-Based Audience Analysis in Live Events

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: The accurate measurement of audience engagement in real-world live events remains a significant challenge, with the majority of existing research confined to controlled environments like classrooms. This paper presents a comprehensive survey of Computer Vision AI-driven methods for real-time audience engagement monitoring and proposes a novel, holistic architecture to address this gap, with this architecture being the main contribution of the paper. The paper identifies and defines five core constructs essential for a robust analysis: Attention, Emotion and Sentiment, Body Language, Scene Dynamics, and Behaviours. Through a selective review of state-of-the-art techniques for each construct, the necessity of a multimodal approach that surpasses the limitations of isolated indicators is highlighted. The work synthesises a fragmented field into a unified taxonomy and introduces a modular architecture that integrates these constructs with practical, business-oriented metrics such as Commitment, Conversion, and Retention. Finally, by integrating cognitive, affective, and behavioural signals, this work provides a roadmap for developing operational systems that can transform live event experience and management through data-driven, real-time analytics.

Source: Multimodal Technologies and Interaction

DOI: 10.3390/mti10010008

Authors: Marco Lemos, Pedro J. S. Cardoso, João M. F. Rodrigues

Institutions: Laboratório para a Ciência da Computação e Informática, University of Algarve

Language: English

Topic: Emotion and Mood Recognition

Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,930

Funders: European Commission, NOVA Laboratory for Computer Science and Informatics, Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia