Face Time: New App Reads Facial Responses, Boon To Marketers
- by Gavin O'Malley @mp_gavin, March 3, 2011
Tell us what you really think. Marketers have been trying to get the question out of consumers for years, and some believe that new Web-based face-recognition technology will get closer to the truth than ever before.
Potentially helping the cause, Forbes.com plans to debut a facial expression reader app on Thursday, which asks participants to turn on their Web cams and then view video ads from Doritos, Volkswagen, and Google.
Employing technology developed by Affectiva and the MIT Media Lab, the purpose of the app is to gather data and insights into the emerging field of gesture and facial expression recognition.
"At the highest level, we can tell how anyone is feeling about anything," explains Dave Berman, CEO of Affectiva, which was incubated at MIT before branching out as a commercial entity less than two years ago. "The commercial applications are endless."
Along with IPG, Berman said Affectiva is now working with nearly 100 clients interested in using real-time facial recognition to improve their online offerings. A large gaming company, for instance, wants to know when online players are losing interest so it can ramp up the action, or offer them another game to play.
Based on how viewers respond to an ad, marketers hope to perfect their calls to action. A look of confusion might, for example, trigger more information about a product, while a look of great joy may send a viewers directly to a purchase page.
"They're very interested to know how their customers feel," Berman said of his many clients, "and click-throughs don't tell you that."
So, what began as an effort at MIT to help people who have difficulty reading emotion is now being commercialized at Affectiva by Berman along with two MIT professors, Dr. Rosalind Picard and Dr. Rana el Kaliouby.
How do publishers and marketers plan to get consumers to turn on their Web cams? Along with whetting their curiosity, most likely by adding incentives to their participation, Berman said. A video game maker might offer in-game rewards, say, while a marketer could offer a 20% coupon in exchange for consumers' consent.
What does Forbes.com have to gain from helping Affectiva and MIT gather data?
"Forbes is interested in data visualization and in new ways to engage readers online," a company spokeswomen explained. "Reporter Jon Bruner ... saw the face reading technology at the MIT Media Lab last fall and thought it would be cool to let Forbes readers try out an app that is based on a new area of science, known as affective computing."
In order not to alienate potential participants, the Forbes.com app is opt-in only, and shows users their expressions after reading them with a Web cam.
According to Berman, Affectiva boasts the ability to read all manner of facial expressions -- but for Forbes.com, it's only reading smiles.
OK so you can recognize "smiles" - but there are real and social smiles, which makes an important distinction in communications.
More importantly, what about the other emotions we display facially? Got algorithms for anger, fear, disgust, etc. etc?
This technology will not only be a boon to marketing, it appears to have the potential to revolutionize the next generation of video games.
A game device capable of sensing the arousal level, or "engagement" of the player(s) can be programmed to fine tune its level of difficulty, pace of play, sound effects, and as it learns what its human player's preferences, make subtle adjustments which can keep the player from becoming too frustrated, or too bored, and thus prolong the pleasurable, escapist experience of game play.
No ! Can't believe it. Lie to Me ! No, wait, that's the program buried in the Fox line-up since truthiness is so alludable. ;)