HAUTE: Harmonizing Action Units with Temporal-contextual Embeddings for Deepfake Detection

The proliferation of highly realistic deepfake videos threatens public trust and the integrity of digital information. However, detecting sophisticated deepfakes requires analysis beyond surface-level visual artifacts. We propose Harmonizing Action Units with Temporal-contextual Embeddings (HAUTE), integrating physiological muscle dynamics with holistic semantic context through adaptive attention mechanisms. HAUTE captures temporal Action Unit coordination patterns and high-level contextual embeddings, enabling the model to reveal synthesis-induced inconsistencies imperceptible to isolated modalities. Extensive experiments demonstrate state-of-the-art performance with strong cross-dataset adaptability, particularly on commercial tool-based high-quality deepfakes, advancing trustworthy content verification for web ecosystems.