Researchers in Germany have developed technology that can recognize emotions from facial expression -- a tool that could have huge potential for advertisers. Normally, they can only guess at the public's reaction to a new campaign -- or gather it through polling or focus groups. But marketers using the technology under development by the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits could make the data instantly accessible.
It works like this: A video camera records the face of each person who passes an ad in, say, an airport and registers if he or she looks happy, surprised, sad or angry. Then algorithms find faces in the video image, count the number of people watching, distinguish between men and women and thdn analyze their expressions -- all in real time.
This kind of software could mean big changes in the way advertising is done, says Ross Anderson of the Foundation for Information Policy Research, as companies will see the response to campaigns and can make changes when needed. A completed prototype can now tell between happy and unhappy, but the group is still working on the other emotions. The recognition rate for differentiating men and women is at 90%.
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