The article titled "Making Mona Lisa Smile," describes a new technology known as the Facial Action Coding System (or FACS). This system is able to recognize human emotions. This new technology was developed by proffessor Nicu Sebe, proffessor Thomas Huang and Dr. Paul Eckman. Together, they created this revolutionary software and hope to see it's advancement, not only in the field of science, but in every day life. One of these examples include the classroom, where the ability to read student's emotions would be valuable.

In order to detect human fellings, the system first, builds a digital 3-D model of the human face. This model includes the 44 major muscles used by human's to convey emotion. Each expression is compared to a neutral model so that the computer can detect differences and the movement of certain muscles. The article reads, "Movement of one or more muscles is called an 'action unit.'" (paragraph 3) Then, these action units are matched with the action units of the six basic emotions programmed into the system: happiness, surprise, anger, disgust, fear, and sadness. FACS is then able to detect a face's emotion. Paragraph 4 states, "By weighting the different [action] units, the software can even identify mixed emotions..." (paragraph 4) The intensive proccess by which FACS works, allows a computer to associate human emotion at an extremely deep level.

The FACS software has many implications in everyday life. Paragraph 6 of the article elaborates on a few of these uses saying, "...if you smile when a Web ad appears on your [computer] screen, a similar ad might follow. But if you frown, the next ad will be different... The same technology can make computer-animated faces more expressive- for video games or video surgery." (paragraph 6) One of the more important uses of the program is at school. While students are at a computer, FACS could detect if the student was becoming bored or confused and could then change or modify the lesson to make it more engaging, therefore providing a positive learning experience for all students. The article says, "Most human communication is nonverbal, including emotional communication..." (paragraph 6) While human's may have a harder time detecting these deeper degrees of expression, a computer would have no problem. Having a technology that can detect this would help improve the world, especially in the classroom setting.

The technology known as the Facial Action Coding System, described in the article "Making Mona Lisa Smile", is revolutiuonary.

By comparing the movement of muscels on the human face, the system is able to detect a specific emotion. This system in turn, would have a major impact on everyday life and have major value in a classroom. Hopefully, with the FACS software and other developing new technology, people's learning experiences will be greatly improved upon so that students are provided with an approach to learning that works best for them.