Modern urban environments often expose people to negative emotions displayed in public, which can unconsciously affect wellbeing. While we can't control others' emotions, augmented reality could offer a way to modify how we perceive these expressions - maintaining face-to-face interaction while filtering distressing visual stimuli.

The Emotional Filter Concept

The core idea involves using AR technology to detect facial expressions in the user's field of vision and modify them in real-time. Instead of seeing someone's actual negative expression (like sadness or anger), users might see them smiling or looking neutral. This could be implemented through AR glasses that:

• Process live video feed using computer vision
• Identify emotional expressions through machine learning
• Apply subtle modifications while preserving natural facial movements

Users could customize which emotions to modify and what to replace them with, creating a personalized emotional "view" of their surroundings.

Potential Applications and Implementation

This could particularly help emotionally sensitive individuals, professionals in customer service, or parents wanting to shield children from intense negative expressions in public. One way to implement this would be to start with:

1. A smartphone app modifying faces in recorded videos as proof of concept
2. An AR prototype for developer kits
3. A final version optimized for commercial AR glasses

Privacy concerns would need addressing through on-device processing without data storage, balancing emotional comfort with social reality through usage limits and transparency features.

Differentiation from Existing Technologies

Unlike Snapchat filters that modify one's own face playfully or Facebook avatars that replace faces completely, this concept focuses on modifying how we perceive others' expressions in real-world interactions. While similar technologies exist for emotion recognition or self-modification, applying them to environmental emotional filtering presents new opportunities for wellbeing applications.

This approach could offer a novel way to manage emotional experiences in public spaces, combining AR capabilities with psychological wellbeing considerations.