Copyright © 2009 Smiley Community
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. This copyright applies to the Smiley Ontology Specification and accompanying documentation in RDF. Regarding underlying technology, Smiley Ontology uses W3C's RDF technology, an open Web standard that can be freely used by anyone.
This visual layout and structure of the specification was adapted from the FOAF Vocabulary Specification by Dan Brickley and Libby Miller, SIOC Core Ontology Specification by Uldis Bojars and John G. Breslin, and Online Presence Ontology by Milan Stankovic and Jelena Jovanovic.
The Smiley Ontology provides the main concepts and properties required to describe structure of a smiley and to capture and formal represent semantics of emotions and emotional states that are contained within smiley. This document contains a detailed description of the Smiley Ontology.
NOTE: This section describes the status of this document at the time of its publication. Other documents may supersede this document.
This specification is an evolving document. This document is generated by combining a machine-readable Smiley Ontology expressed in RDF/XML with a specification template and a set of per-term documents.
Authors welcome suggestions on the Smiley Ontology and this document. Please send comments to the smiley-ontology@googlegroups.com mailing list. This document may be updated or added to based on implementation experience, but no commitment is made by the authors regarding future updates.
Since the very beginning of the Internet and communication via e-mails, instant messengers (IM) and other large number of services that eventually arise, people used emoticons (smileys) as one of the most useful, easiest, and interesting ways of expressing their emotions, state or action in some moment. As a textual portrayal of a one's mood or facial expression, people use emoticons when they e-mail a letter to a friend, in a chat with their pen pals, or when they want to comment on a blog post or a Facebook photo from a best friend’s birthday party. Shortly, whenever one wants to express himself, instead of typing too much, he will just use one simple concept – emoticons, and in many cases it will tell more than a thousand words. And nowadays, emoticons aren’t just a few simple characters and their combination. The concept of emoticon has evolved through years, so we see it as a fully colored picture, used to enrich text context or replace it entirely, thus bringing much richer experience to a user. It can be a facial expression,an object, or a piece of text, and can present a large number of activities, and even be animated.
There are a large number of different systems that enable the use of emoticons, and all of them have different collection of emoticons. If you pick up one emoticon from a one system, probably you will not find the same one in any other. The same thing stands for the semantics. It is often that there are plenty emoticons that are visually different, but they’re all semantically the same.
The fact that different systems are using different set of emoticons, even for presenting the same emotion, state or action, and that the semantics of the emoticons is not accessible for automatic interpretation, points out that there is space for improvement. Therefore, we propose the use of Smiley Ontology an ontology that aims to enable interchange of emoticons between different systems, without any loss of their semantics, as well as to allow for capturing and formal representation of semantics of emotions and emotional states that are widely spread across the Web. For more information about the project goals and more examples of Ontology use please refer to the project's wiki.
The keywords "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119.
Terms 'smiley' and 'emoticon' are used as synonyms.
Namespace URIs of the general form "http://www.example.com/" represent some application-dependent or context-dependent URI as defined in RFC 2396.
The XML Namespace URIs that MUST be used by implementations of this specification are:
An alphabetical index of Smiley Ontology terms, by class (concepts) and by property (relationships, attributes), are given below. All the terms are hyperlinked to their detailed description for quick reference
Classes:CharacterRepresentation,Emoticon,EmoticonFraction,EmoticonSystem,Emotion,FacialExpression,Message,Object,Picture,State,VisualRepresentation
Properties: belongsToSystem,characters,currentState,drinking,eating,hasFraction,hasMessage,holding,hugging,isAnimated,kicking,kissing,playing,playingWith,punching,relationship,representedBy,representsEmotion,representsObject,
smoking,speakingWith,standingOn,systemURLtalkingTo,tapping,throwing,wearing
Instances: AngryFace,BeboEmoticonSystem,FacebookEmoticonSystem,GMailEmoticomSystem,HappyFace,Hi5EmoticonSystem,MsnEmoticonSystem,MySpaceEmoticonSystem,PuzzledFace,SadFace,SkypeEmoticonSystem,
SurprisedFace
The core classes in Smiley Ontology are shown on the following figure.
The core class of the Smiley Ontology is the Emoticon class, which formally represents the concept of a smiley. Each smiley can be visually represented as a sequence of characters, a picture or both. So, in our model, we have introduced VisualRepresentation class. CharacterRepresentation and Picture are possible representations of VisualRepresentation. An emoticon can be animated or static and still carry the same meaning, thus the property isAnimated of the VisualRepresentation class is introduced.
As each IM, Social Network and any other social software tool uses predefined set of emoticons which are disposable for its users, we have defined the EmoticonSystem class as an assembly of smiley instances originating from a specific social software tool. Each emoticon system uses its own pictures for depicting emoticons.
One of the most important connotations that an emoticon carries is emotion (Emotion class). Emoticon is often used to accentuate the emotional context of a sentence or the whole text. What is more, it is not a rare occasion that an emoticon even replaces the text entirely and does that not only without the loss of emotional semantic, but it often makes the emotion clearer to the recipient.(e.g. setting status message just “:-(” clearly means being sad).
An emoticon does not need to be a single item (or just a face expression). It can consist of many fractions (EmoticonFraction class) that each has its own meaning:
Meaning of these fractions of an emoticon can vary significantly, but in general they can represent a State of emoticon fraction (e.g. ringing, sleeping). In addition, each fraction can be in some sort of relationship(s) with another one (e.g. smiley carrying sunglasses).
Here is a very basic document describing a smiley 
in Turtle syntax:
@prefix rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#>. |
The example shows a description of a smiley from the picture above. The smiley consists of two fractions. The smiley is represented with facial expression that clearly states happines, so we referenced to the instance smiley:happyFace. The other fraction (#Fraction2) are sunglasses, type of smiley:Object class, that reference to the UMBEL ontology instance http://umbel.org/umbel/sc/Sunglasses. Those two fractions are in a relationship smiley:wearing.
In order to identify smileys' visual representation, we have assigned the identifier #smileyVisualRepresentation to it. First we define the type of #smileyVisualRepresentation as smiley:Picture, and then we specify its properties:
This smiley can also be represented with characters, why we've introduced #smileyCharacterRepresentation instance. It is specified that this smiley can be written with two different sequences of characters, "B-)" and "B)" and that this character representation is not animated.
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#CharacterRepresentation
CharacterRepresentation - Sequence of characters that depicts a smiley.
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#Emoticon
Emoticon - Emoticon class formally represents the concept of an emoticon.
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#EmoticonFraction
EmoticonFraction - A component of an emoticon used to represent one of its fractions.
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#EmoticonSystem
EmoticonSystem - EmoticonSystem class is an assembly of emoticon instances originating from a specific social software tool.
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#Emotion
Emotion - Emotion class represents an emotion that emoticon carries.
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#FacialExpression
FacialExpression - FacialExpression depicts human's face expression (e.g. happy face).
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#Message
Message - Message represents a sequence of characters or a text (e.g. question mark).
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#Object
Object - Object represents an item that an emoticon can contain (e.g. ball, clock).
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#Picture
Picture - Emoticon's picture.
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#State
State - Current state of an emoticon or action it is performing (e.g. ringing, carying, sleeping).
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#VisualRepresentation
VisualRepresentation - VisualRepresentation describes how an emoticon is visuelised.
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#belongsToSystem
Belongs To System - The EmoticonSystem that the emoticon belongs to.
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#characters
Characters - The sequence of characters that depicts particular emoticon.
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#currentState
Current State - The state of the smiley.
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#drinking
Drinking - Indicates that two Emoticon fractions are in relationsihp drinking (e.g. smiley (FacialExpression) is drinking glass of beer (Object)).
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#eating
Eating - Indicates that two Emoticon fractions are in relationsihp eating (e.g. smiley (FacialExpression) is eating sandwich (Object)).
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#hasFraction
Has Fraction - Emoticon fractions that the emoticon is consisted of.
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#hasMessage
Has Message - URL of the emoticon system.
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#holding
Holding - Indicates that two Emoticon fractions are in relationsihp holding (e.g. smiley (FacialExpression) is holding flowers (Object)).
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#hugging
Hugging - Indicates that two Emoticon fractions are in relationsihp hugging (e.g. smiley (FacialExpression) is hugging another smiley).
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#isAnimated
Is Animated - Describes whether emoticon is animated or not.
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#kicking
Kicking - Indicates that two Emoticon fractions are in relationsihp kicking (e.g. smiley (FacialExpression) is kicking the ball (Object)).
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#kissing
Kissing - Indicates that two Emoticon fractions are in relationsihp kissing (e.g. smiley (FacialExpression) is kissing another smiley).
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#playing
Playing - Indicates that two Emoticon fractions are in relationsihp playing (e.g. smiley (FacialExpression) is playing the flute (Object)).
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#playingWith
Playing With - Indicates that two Emoticon fractions are in relationsihp playingWith (e.g. smiley (FacialExpression) is playing with another smiley).
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#punching
Punching - Indicates that two Emoticon fractions are in relationsihp punching (e.g. smiley (FacialExpression) is punching the bag (Object)).
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#relationship
Relationship - Represent that two emoticon fractions are in some relationship
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#representedBy
Represented By - Visual represetation of the emoticon.
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#representsEmotion
Represents Emotion - Emotion that lays beneath the emoticon.
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#representsObject
Represents Object - Reference to the object that is depicted by emoticon fraction.
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#smoking
Smoking - Indicates that two Emoticon fractions are in relationsihp smoking (e.g. smiley (FacialExpression) is smoking the cigarette (Object)).
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#speakingWith
Speaking With -
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#standingOn
Standing On - Indicates that two Emoticon fractions are in relationsihp standingOn (e.g. smiley (FacialExpression) is standing on the box (Object)).
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#systemURL
System URL - URL of the emoticon system.
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#talkingTo
Talking To - .
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#tapping
Tapping - Indicates that two Emoticon fractions are in relationsihp tapping (e.g. smiley (FacialExpression) is tapping the ball (Object)).
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#throwing
Throwing - Indicates that two Emoticon fractions are in relationsihp throwing (e.g. smiley (FacialExpression) is throwing the spear (Object)).
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#wearing
Wearing - Indicates that two Emoticon fractions are in relationsihp wearing (e.g. smiley (FacialExpression) is wearing the sunglasses (Object)).
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#AngryFace
AngryFace - Represents angry face.
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#BeboEmoticonSystem
BeboEmoticonSystem - Emoticon system for Bebo Social Network.
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#FacebookEmoticonSystem
FacebookEmoticonSystem - Emoticon system for Facebook Social Network.
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#GMailEmoticomSystem
GMailEmoticomSystem - Emoticon system for GMail Instant Messenger.
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#HappyFace
HappyFace - Represents happy face.
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#Hi5EmoticonSystem
Hi5EmoticonSystem - Emoticon system for Hi5 Social Network.
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#MsnEmoticonSystem
MsnEmoticonSystem - Emoticon system for MSN Instant Messenger.
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#MySpaceEmoticonSystem
MySpaceEmoticonSystem - Emoticon system for MySpace Social Network.
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#PuzzledFace
PuzzledFace - Represents puzzled face.
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#SadFace
SadFace - Represents sad face.
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#SkypeEmoticonSystem
SkypeEmoticonSystem - Emoticon system for Skype Instant Messenger.
URI: http://www.smileyontology.com/ns#SurprisedFace
SurprisedFace - Represents surprised face.
The document was generated using SpecGen5. We would like to thank to Milan Stankovic and Jelena Jovanovic for all extremely helpful suggestions and time devoted to us during development of the ontology.