A smartphone monitors and decodes a person's facial expressions as either "positive" or "negative"

Discussion: Manual techniques of market research require hours of viewing slow motion video and logging mind-numbing facial expressions, a labor-intensive process that greatly limits the number of people that can be tested.  But new technology is replacing these traditional techniques with computerized emotion recognition that can analyze thousands of faces at the same time.  If this technology really can decipher the intricacies of human emotion, the study sample size could potentially go from 30 people in a few counties to half a billion worldwide.

Source: BBC News

Date: March 6, 2011

Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12581446

Question for discussion:

• Discuss the author’s “small caveat”: you must be prepared to believe that computers can decipher the intricacies of human emotion.