National Security: Is Emotion Recognition Software the Answer?

The technology revolution is the fastest growing medium since the industrial revolution. The difference may be that technology and its applications will never end. In fact, as technology advances so do the creative uses for that technology like emotion recognition software.

Universities across America and beyond are scrambling to not just keep up with the latest in teaching technology but also to lead the way in new advances and leading ground-breaking research with technology across many disciplines. It seems that the newest technology everyone is talking about is Emotion Recognition Software.

An example of this new Emotion Recognition Software is going on in a neuroscience and psychology lab at Berkeley. Run by neuroscientist Jack Gallant, in his brain imaging and vision research, it appears he is close to figuring out how to read minds through brain pattern analysis using magnetic resonance scans and algorithms. Now it is true that MRI's are not new, being used in medical diagnosis and treatment since the 1940's, but research into further advanced applications has not been attempted until recently.

According to Gallant, by viewing random photographs and evaluating MRI readings from a person's primary visual cortex, he can reconstruct what a brain is thinking. While he states that his current procedure for doing this takes hours of analysis, his objective is 'to continue to define the technology to the point where it can deduce what people are seeing in real time'.

Another new advancement has been in emotion analyzing software. When we smile, frown, or make any facial gesture, thousands of facial muscles are in movement. Emotion Recognition Software creates a map in a three dimensional format, selecting points on a face that can be used as matching points like the corner of the mouth. Then a mathematical algorithm is matched to the movements. Algorithms have been created and associated to an individual's facial expression patterns. The software, upon analysis, can detect and assign a label to what it is detecting like anger, sadness, fear, etc. After analyzing many different subjects the database has grown to a size that almost ensures successful matching.

Computers cannot totally substitute a trained professional in finding out how we think or what we are thinking. Having said this, Gallant and others believe this technology can help when subjects may be unconscious or where people might want to conceal things like in a job interview, a criminal investigation, or a terrorist waiting to act.

Another company, Omron (a Japanese electronics company), has another software suite (OKAO Vision) which picks out the faces in an image and provides feedback that can determine the person's gender and suggested age. Omron believes this new technology could be used in market research, customer service, patient evaluation and terrorist identification.

Once OKAO Vision software has registered a typical two-dimensional version of a face, it overlays a 3-D mask-like layer that allows the software to evaluate the face. The software is capable of doing this even if the subject's head is turned or they are not looking right at the camera.

Clearly, if this technology is successful as the creators think it will be, it will be a new technological paradigm that just might influence the way everybody does business. Mind-reading and emotion analysis could help doctors understand the inner world of subjects with many disorders like, post traumatic stress disorder or other cognitive disabilities. The same analysis could be used in real time to detect terrorists in high profile locations like airports and government buildings or by court officials to determine intent of the accused. We might also, in our lifetime, see this technology take over where lie-detecting machines have left off.

A form of this technology is being used already in an Amsterdam prison where cameras keep constant track of the inmates and decipher their emotions to try to predict when there might be negative emotions that could lead to arguments or brawls. With the use of ERS, when the software predicts negative behavior, notification is sent to the few guards on duty to intercept an outburst. It has so far been very reliable and has proven efficient and economical.

Of course with each new technological advancement many ethical and legal issues are raised. Would the use of this technology be an invasion of privacy? Could our inner thoughts be vulnerable and accessed without our permission? Will the technology ever be 100% accurate where we could really trust its result? Does any of this matter if it relates to National Security?

While these questions will take time to ponder, it remains sure that the answers will not be simple and for sure not agreed upon. As with all technological advances we have to weigh the positives along with the negatives but regardless of the weight, technology, and therefore society, will move forward.

Sources

Katayama, Popular Science,Feb. 2010, "The Mind Readers".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/jan/19/prisonsandprobation.society