Next week’s Royal Society summer science exhibition is attracting lots of attention, especially the mind-reading computers covered by CNN and the Telegraph science editor, Roger Highfield.

Peter Robinson, professor of computer technology at the university, said: “Imagine a computer that could pick the right emotional moment to try to sell you something, a future in which mobile telephones, cars and websites could read our minds and react to our moods.”

This is over-hyped; what the technology does is to read facial expressions. The computer program is fed data from a camera and tracks 20 facial movements which correspond to different moods. Actors have helped in the programming, and visitors to the show will be invited to do likewise. As with voices, there are small variations in the way different people do it, so the computer has to fine tune its interpretations as it learns.

One possible use is driver safety, with computers watching for complex expressions linked to confusion, boredom or tiredness. Another possible use is in smart ads, which will see when people look glum and try to sell them something cheerful like a holiday. Researchers

are also working with colleagues in America to develop a headset version of the system to help people who find it difficult to read others’ facial expressions and emotions, as happens with autism and Asperger’s syndrome. The headset would interpret other people’s moods and communicate them to the wearer.

Of course it will not be long before police and security services think of new and distinctive uses of mood recognition technology. No doubt it will be connected to the ubiquitous CCTV cameras so that the authorities can scan us constantly and will know if any of us are feeling moods they don’t approve of.

From Adam Smith Institute

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