The article "Making Mona Lisa Smile," by Nich D'Alto describes how a new technology called the Facial Action Coding System enables computers to identify human emotions. I do think that the use of this technology to read the emotional expressions of sudents in a classroom is valuable.

It explains in the text the software can tell you how happy, sad, angry, etc.. the person is. In paragraph one it states,"She's 83 percent happy, 9 percent disgusted, 6 percent fearful, and 2 percent angry." This explains that this software can tell exactly how you are feeling. The program will first take a 3D model of your face and then examine the movements of each muscle in your face. The computer needs to examine the muscles in your face because the muslces of a real smile and a fake smile move differently. Dr. Huang states,"The facial expressions for each emotion are universal." This means that when everyone is actually smiling and not faking it their muscles move the same way. This also means when a person is sad their muscles will move the same exact way of everyone else who is truly sad. I think the use of this technology to read the emotional expressions of students in a classroom is very valueable, becuase if that person is sad or depressed then we will know and we can help them get through whatever they are going through. Dr. Huang states, "Most human communication is nonverbal, including emotional communication." This means that humans do not show thier emotions all the time, and computers have to understand that too. This means that humans can hide their emotions and when someone is smiling that does not always mean that they are nessasaraly happy, and when someone looks sad that does not mean that they are always sad. The computers have to understand more than the visual picture. The computer has to understand the muslce part of the face to examine if they are truly happy, sad, angry, etc.. An example of how this technology could benifit us in tremendous ways is if a student is in the classroom and they are very angry, we can talk to them or get them help so they will not hurt anyone or do something not appropriate. Another example on how the Facial Action Coding System could help schools out and benefit us is if someone is super depressed and they are planning on hurting themselves or hurting others around them then we will be able to notice that and try to find help. It will be safer for not just that person but everyone.

Reading this text and really thinking about everything and all the facts, I am for using this technology to read students' emotional expresssions. I do not think the Facial Action Coding System could hurt any school, I think it would benifit schools is various ways.