You would like fries with that.
"Imagine a computer that could pick the right emotional moment to try to sell you something, a future where mobile phones, cars and Web sites could read our mind and react to our moods," says Cambridge University professor Peter Robinson in a Reuters report today. That scenario might be exciting to some or a little disturbing to others, but the day is coming, Robinson believes, when computers will be able to read your mind.
He and his team of researchers have developed a system that reads 24 facial expressions, which they hope to eventually use to tailor Web advertising to suit your mood or as an aid in online teaching, among other uses. "Anyone who does not want to give away too much information about what they are feeling," the report reassures, "can just cover up the camera." Now imagine what such a system might do for the often highly emotional processes of buying and selling a home....
