In the article "Making Mona Lisa Smile," the author describes how a new technology called Facial Action Coding System (FACS) enables computers to identify human emotions. Is the use of this technology to read the emotional expressions of students in a classroom valuble? The technology is valuable, because it can tell if you are confused or bored, and change what you are doing to something that is either easier to understand or more entertaining to learn. That is something valuable, becuase not only does it help students, but it also helps teachers teach the kids.

How could a computer recognize the subtle facial movements we humans use to express how we feel? Well, " 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 muscles is called and 'action unit.' ". " For example, your frontalis par lateralis mucles (above your eyes) raises your eyebrows when you're surprised; your orbicularis oris (around your mouth) tightens your lips to show anger.". This is really useful also because, the computer can tell if your sad or happy. " Imagine a comptuer that knows when you're happy or sad. For examples, 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.".

" 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 expressive--for video games or video sugery. 'Most human communication is nonverbal, including emotional communication,' notes Dr. Haung. 'So computers need to understand that, too.'". That is valuable, it helps students and teachers, by just recognizing our facial expressions. It would make it easier for the special needs kids too, because instead of teachers having to change their lessons a hundred different times. The computer would change it as soon as it reads the kids expression that he didn't understand.

Is this Technology to read the emotinal expressions of students in a classroom valuable? Yes, this technology is very valuable, for someone who don't understand things so easily this would help extremendisly. For the shy kid who is confused but don't want to ask for help. Or the mean boy who wants good grades but don't want to ask for help because his buddies might make fun of him. Even for the smartest person in class, it would help. Most teachers do their jobs really well, but even they can't tell if your always getting it or understanding it. So some kids leave class having no idea what they just learned. So is this technology valuable? Yes.