Identifying Human Emotions

Imagine being able to figure out exactly how anyone in this world are feeling with just a computer. Now software has developed that could help you do just that. The Fcial Action Coding System has applications that will be extraordinary to modern day technology.

Dr. Huang and Dr. Eckman created the the FACS. All which have six emotions-happiness, surprise, anger, disgust, fear, and sadness. These are emotions that are used on a daily basis around the world so they are pretty basic. Video imagery is used that tracks one's facial movements. Therefore it can identify mixed emotions. The video imagery compares each expression with a neutral face in order to figure your emotions.

Imagine being at school on your classroom computer learning something boring, and all of a sudden the topic becomes fun. Dr. Huang predicts that your classroom computer could recognize when a student is confused or bored. It would be useful to many students in order to make and help them learn better. This same technology could make identifying emotions much easier. The boring lesson for you would modify. This way the computer will know to keep giving you boring lessons or fun ones.

Facial muscles are obviously an important item in this. If the technology could not identify the way your facial muscles move, then the technology would not work. Not only do your muscles express emotion, but they also help produce them. The article states that a renowned drama coach, Constantin Stanislavsky, had his actors carefully reproduce smiling and frowning as a way of creating these emotions on stage. This clearly would help the actors express themselves better, thanks to our face muscles. People may not notice, but we imitate other people's facial expressions with empathy.

Who would have thought that sience and technology could be involved with a big feature of who we are. Sometimes being able to figure how someone is feeling. At times we may even have to bug them in order to figure the emotion. Now with the new technology of FACS, this task will be easier. Even for students in a classroom, this will be valuable.