Have you ever spent hours sitting in front of a computer doing school work, learning from a computer-animated face, or simply browsing the web? Have you become bored and uninterested in the process? Professor Thomas Haung has created a computer software that can detect emotions. FACS, the Facial Action Coding System, can be useful reading students' emotional expressions in many ways. A few examples include adjusting a lesson the student is learning if the software detects that they are confused or bored, making computer-animated faces more expressive, and relying on the fact that most human communications are nonverbal, including emotional communication.

If a student is spending hours on a computer, whether it be doing homework, studying, or simply learning a new lesson in school, it is likely that they will become bored or confused in the midst of their work. If the FACS were to be installed onto their computer, the software would be able to detect the students' change in expression and emotion, and modify the lesson, homework, or stuyding that the student is doing. This would simulate an effective human instructor. It would also help the student get their work done quicker, and they will become interested in what they are doing again.

FACS would greatly lend a hand in the making of computer-animated faces more expressive. This software could help show more emotions among computer-animated faces, such as disgust, sadness, fear, jealousy, etc. By showing more expressive emotions, the FACS would largely help students become more interested in what they are learning, if they are learning from a computer-generated person. If the person hardly shows emotions and is not very expressive, the student will likely become bored and uninterested in what they are doing. However, FACS can help prevent that.

An important way FACS can be of use is simply detecting human emotion. Most human communication is nonverbal, including emotional communication. Because computers, and technology in general, are the future, it is vital that computers can understand that. For example, if you smile when a Web ad appears on your screen, a similar ad might follow. However, if you frown when a Web ad appears, the next ad will be different. This will generally make the users experience on the computer more content, as they are not bothered by annoying ads.

In conclusion, the Facial Action Coding System could greatly be useful in many ways. Students can become more interested in learning, studying, or doing homework, computer-animated faces can become more expressive, and most human communication is nonverbal, making it vital that computers can understand that.