Have you ever wanted to know exactly how somone is feeling? What if you were telling your friend a story and you truly wanted to know if they found it interesting? The latest innovation from Professor Thomas Huang and Professor Nicu Sebe can detect the emotions of someone by calculating the way the subject's facial structure and muscles form the six basic emotions, which are happiness, surpries, anger, disgust, and fear. This system is called the Facial Action Coding System (FACS) and can be used for many different reasons. One example is in the cassroom. With the FACS, teachers will be able to read the emotional state of their students, plan/adjust lessons based on the readings, and bring a happier, more interesting experience to the classroom.

The FACS has the ability to read emotions based on muscles and face composition. Tests have been done on one of the most famous paintings in history, "Mona Lisa". While this technology can be trivial, as reading a painting-woman's face is not completely productive, it can be helpful towards teachers and students. If the teacher has the ability to truly understand and read their student's emotions, the teacher can switch up and have the ability to try something new. For example, if a student's structure reads that (s)he is confused, the teacher can either go more in depth into the lesson and explain further as to avoid any more confusion. This is exactly what Dr. Huang has predicted, saying that "A classroom computer could recognize when a student is becoming confused or bored... Then it could modify the lesson" in paragraph 6.

Bringing the FACS into the classroom will not only allow teachers to see how bored and confused their students are, it can force the teacher to be innovative and creative in their lesson plans. If the teacher truly cares for their students' attention, (s)he would have to implement new ways to teach boring subjects, in which most students would clock out of otherwise. Most students dread long lectures and usually either stop paying attention, thus wasting both the teacher's and student's time, or forget most of the information. With the FACS, teachers will be able to detect signs of boredom and dread and then capitalize on their emotions with a new activity or fun game to lighten the students' moods, while also giving them the proper amount of information.

Much like the example above, there are ways for teachers to bring a lighter-toned, more fun energy to the classroom with this system. If the teacher sees that the students are boerd, in a lecture for exapmle, the teacher could implement a game or fun activity. According to the Facial Feedback Theory of Emotion, as explained in paragraph 9, if someone is putting on a happy face, even if they do not mean it, they are subconciously happy and are having a good time. If the students are doing a fun activity together, they are surely going to smile, giving off positive vibes and general happiness in response to an otherwise boring lesson.

The FACS is a revolutionary way of processing emotions and can be really helpful for any student-teahcer learning environment. The system can allow teachers to read what their students are feeling, and can either hcange a lesson plan to reduce confusion, or implement activities or games to increase happiness and positivity during a dreadful lecture. The FACS in the classroom will help both teachers and students alike.