Technology continues to advance as it becomes more complicated, complex, and innovative in today's society.

Just eleven years ago the iPhone did not exist, and yet now we have access to 3-d printers, life-saving medical advancments, and...the Facial Action Coding System?

That's right: this new technology, sometimes refered to simply as FACS and developed by Professor Thomas Huang of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science at the University of Illinois, has the incredible ability to read each and every emotion displayed on a person's face.

For instance, the invention identified da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" as being "83 percent happy, 9 percent disgusted, 6 percent fearful, and 2 percent angry."

While this demonstration of its ability is certainly impressive, we should instead think about the potential that this machine has to be a useful tool elsewhere: such as in the classroom.

The Facial Action Coding System could be utilized brilliantly to read the emotional expressions of students in a classroom, a valuable idea that could change the way a school is run.

First of all, teachers could use this tool to test how their students react to certain lessons, topics, and concepts.

By using the FACS to gauge the class, they could identify how to modify lesson plans for future units and for the years to come.

As Dr. Huang states, "'A classroom computer could recognize when a student is becoming confused or bored.'"

The teacher could access and interpret these results, or the computer itself could "modify the lesson, like an effective human instructor."

The emotional information of these students could provide valuable information and instruction that would in turn give a student more confidence and a better undeerstanding of the topic at hand.

Secondly, the Facial Action Coding System could be used to help pupils measure the effectiveness of not only lessons, but homework assignments as well.

From a student's perpective, homework is the dreaded and unforgiving punishment that one always has to look forward to when one gets home.

If the FACS was used to measure the reactions of kids to certain assignments, the new technology could modify these assignments to better fit the needs of each individual student.

The same topics would still be taught, but not every individual learns the same way, so by using this emotions-reading innovation each student could learn and develop better connections with their current subject material.

Lastly, there are some who might say that the FACS would be useless in helping the learning proccess of a child.

Naysayers could claim that this type of instruction would never work in a classroom because a computer can't provide the same type of personal connection that a teacher can develop with a student.

However, this is exactly what the purpose of the Facial Action Coding System should be; to personally instruct a student based on that child's specific learning needs.

The computer technology itself may not be able to directly teach a new topic, but it can certainly help the proccess by identifying what methods work and which ones do not in a classroom.

In conclusion, the use of technology to read the emotional expressions of students in a classroom is an incredibly valuable tool.

This innovation can pave the way for the future of instruction, setting up a template for teaching for years to come.

Not only could the FACS be used to help teachers modify the way that they present their information in a classroom, the Facial Action Coding System could be used as an additional item to help students with their homework.

While some might say it's too impersonal to be effective, this new technology could truly be the most personal and individual type of instruction that the world has at its fingertips.

In the end, Dr. Huang said it best; "'Most human connection is nonverbal, including emotional communication...so computers need to understand that, too."