Rate the following essay on its writing, argument, and language skills:
"Making Mona Lisa Smile" by Nick D'Alto tells of how new computer software can detect six different human emotions based upon facial expressions. This software could potentially have a range of different uses in the future. However, it will never have true value in evaluating the emotional expressions of students in a classroom.

Dr. Paul Eckman helped create this system. He determined that there are six basic emotions on which humans can be evaluated: happiness, surprise, anger, disgust, fear, and sadness. In the sixth paragraph, D'Alto explains, ". . . If you smile when a Web ad appears on your screen, a similar ad might follow. But if you frown, the next ad will be different."

This is a good example of how the software can be useful. Personalized ads are important for websites to deliver content that the consumer will enjoy. A software that can adapt to the person viewing the ads is beneficial to both the consumer and the website on which the individual is viewing.

Although this software is good for things such as ads, it is not useful in a classroom. Also in the sixth paragraph, D'Alto quotes Dr. Thomas Huang, an expert in human-computer communications, "'A classroom computer could recognize when a student is becoming confused or bored, then it could modify the lesson, like an effective human instructor.'"

When the software is used to determine whether or not an ad is pleasing, it is straight forward and easy for the computer to read. Happiness is one of the emotions the software could detect, in addition to disgust, fear, and sadness. For ads, these would be the emotions that would be read to improve content. Confusion and boredom, two of the emotions brought up by Dr. Huang, are not in the six basic emotions a computer could detect. Advertisements on websites are specifically intended to trigger emotions by the viewer, and therefore it is easy to tell if the ad has the intended affect on the consumer. When it comes to school work, emotion is not an important factor of the learning. If an intelligent student is learning the lesson well but looks as if they were confused, this would impare the learning process by modifying the lesson when it is not needed.

Even if the software could tell if the student was bored, it is difficult to tell whether or not they are gathering the information necessary to learn the lesson. The software has good uses and helpful purposes, but not when it comes to regular, dull school work which may or may not result in any emotion at all.

Score: 4