Making Mona Lisa Smile

In the article " Making Mona Lisa Smile," the author describes how a new technology called the Facial Action Coding System enables computers to identify human emotions "The process begins when the computer constructs a 3-D computer model of the face; all 44 major muscles in the model must move like human muscles. Movement of one or more muscl is called an "action unit." Then Dr. Huang relies on the work of psycologist, such as Dr. Paul Eckman, creator of FACS ( Facial Action Coding System ). Eckman has classified six basic emotions---happiness, surprise, anger, disgust, fear, and sadness-- and then associated each with characteristic movements of the facial muscles. ''

" A classroom computer could recognize when a student is becoming confused or bored," Dr. Huang predicts. " Then it could modify the lesson, like an effective human instructor" The same technology can make computer-animated faces more expenssive--- for video games or surgery. The Facial Action Coding System is a great help because then we can determine is some one is happy or sad , depending on face expression that they make in the picture according to the computer.

The Facial Action Coding System does calculate a little bit of the persons emotions depending on your facial expression. It even shows how you can try this at home. According to the Facial Feedback Theory of Emotion, moving your facial muscles not only expresses emotions, but also may even help produce them. They detect the muscle " orbicularis oculi pars palpabraeus ''