Have you ever wanted to know how someone was feeling, whether it was a student, family member, or even a friend? Well with the help of the Facial Action Coding System, now you can do just that. Facial Action Coding System or ( FACS ) for short is a new computer program that can classify up to six differnet emotions by the movement of all 44 major facial muscles. This invention was created by Prof. Thomas Huang. But here is the real question, would this technology be valuable in a classroom?

For us humans, some may find it easy to tell how someone is feeling based on the look on their face. But for others it isn't so easy. Say a teacher for example, is teaching a science lesson. With this type of technology the teacher would be able to tell if his or her students are understanding the topic being taught, or if they are bored and about to fall asleep. This could change every way that a lesson is being taught in every classroom around the world. This could even raise test scores for kids and teens around the globe.

With this type of technology, you could tell how someone is feeling based on the muscle movements in their face. FACS works based on what's called muscular action units. These action units are all of those 44 major, as well as some minor facial movements. This system is the most accurate system out there for telling how someone is feeling based on their muscle movements. For example, take the zygomatic major. This is the muscle that begins at your cheek bones which helps you create your smile. Or the frontalis pars lateralis muscle. This is the muscle above your eyes which helps raise your eyebrows when you are surprised.

Based on all the research, there is the six basic emotions, happiness, surprise, anger, disgust, fear, and sadness. All these emotions happen in a classroom more then anyone would ever imagine. If students were having trouble understanding a math lesson, then this technology could pick that up if the student didn't say they were confused. This technology could be very useful for teachers because it could give them feedback about what they need to do better, or go over more throughly. It could even give them the chance to even change the whole lesson all together and slow it down for students to understand.

So how valuable would this technology be in a classroom environment? Well in my opinion it seems very important. I say this because the technology could tell whether a student was comprehending a lesson, and if they weren't. This technology could also give feedback to the teacher to show if they need to show the lesson over so the students could understand the topic better. This technology could possibly even raise test scores based on the feedback it gives teachers, all based on the looks on the students faces. This new technology known as Facial Action Coding System could help teachers comprehend their students and if they are learnig, confused, or even excited.