Recognize emotions from a photo

November 12, 2015 6:29 PM

Recently, they've been helping us track our facial hair. Now Microsoft's Project Oxford will recognize your emotions from a photo. In the demo, upload (or link to) an image, then roll over the face(s) and get a probability distribution for their emotion(s).
posted by klausman (26 comments total)

The perfect gift for our surveillance-happy masters. Just in time for the holidays, too!
posted by Thorzdad at 6:47 PM on November 12, 2015 [2 favorites]

Does somebody wanna run this through Cumming or Drumming?
posted by brecc at 6:49 PM on November 12, 2015 [6 favorites]

Judging by my pictures I am typically disgusted, contemptuous, and sad. In that order. Thats...depressing.
posted by Marinara at 6:49 PM on November 12, 2015 [1 favorite]

"It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself – anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face (to look incredulous when a victory was announced, for example) was itself a punishable offense. There was even a word for it in Newspeak: facecrime, it was called."

posted by RobotVoodooPower at 6:55 PM on November 12, 2015 [21 favorites]

Torn - this kind of stuff is as interesting as it is horrifying (with horrifying edging slightly ahead).
posted by cotton dress sock at 6:56 PM on November 12, 2015 [1 favorite]

I checked, and Pharrell was almost totally "neutral".
posted by klausman at 7:00 PM on November 12, 2015

Doesn’t do vinegar face so well.
Udo Kier is sad
Jamie Bell is sad
Nicolas Bro is surprised
Uma Thurman is neutral
Stellan Skarsgard is neutral
Jens Albinus is neutral
Willem Dafoe is neutral
Connie Nielsen is neutral
Christian Slater is neutral
The rest of the cast have no face.
posted by unliteral at 7:11 PM on November 12, 2015 [2 favorites]

It does identify the hard rock sneer pretty well, though.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:21 PM on November 12, 2015

Microsoft Word in a couple of years:

"You seem to be... ANGRY.... Initiating calming protocols... playing soothing music... replacing toolbar with happy faces... filling document with Comic Sans..."

"You seem to be... VERY ANGRY."
posted by JHarris at 8:03 PM on November 12, 2015 [4 favorites]

I don't really need a computer telling me I have resting bitch-face today.
posted by figurant at 9:27 PM on November 12, 2015 [4 favorites]

I don't really need a computer telling me I have resting bitch-face today.

We will soon have computers capable of telling women when they look really tired
posted by clockzero at 9:41 PM on November 12, 2015 [10 favorites]

YOUR 'PRETTINESS' SCORE WOULD RISE BY 1.31694478E-7 IF YOU SMILED MORE
posted by ArmandoAkimbo at 9:57 PM on November 12, 2015 [12 favorites]

Mark Twain is sad and angry--OK, got that one.

Julius Caesar is ... afraid?

Ben Franklin is neutral. A little experimenting shows thoughtful = neutral apparently.
posted by LarryC at 11:51 PM on November 12, 2015

What makes a man turn neutral? Lust for gold? Power? Or were they just born with a heart full of neutrality?
posted by the quidnunc kid at 12:33 AM on November 13, 2015 [15 favorites]

If the pictures I chose to analyze of Shia Laboeuf reacting to Transformers 3 recently are any indication, computers are not yet adequate at detecting sadness and disgust! (I know he's covering parts of his face in many of the shots, but even in the ones where he isn't, the obvious sadness only registered at .22 max, compared with more routine 1.0 happiness values for smiling faces)
posted by Perko at 3:28 AM on November 13, 2015

"System error: no results" Uh-oh.
posted by Mogur at 4:25 AM on November 13, 2015

Time to put those stock photo descriptions to the test!
posted by NoMich at 4:56 AM on November 13, 2015 [3 favorites]

Mona Lisa neutral. So much for that idea.
posted by mcrandello at 5:44 AM on November 13, 2015 [3 favorites]

Well. I know this probably wasn't intended for any kind of altruistic purposes but there are apps like iMoodTracker that could benefit from adding something like this in--it already lets you take photos but doesn't analyze them at all. If you've got a mood disorder it can be helpful but at current it's just kind of a self-reference. I could see how this kind of addition might help some people because I for example don't know if I get much from the photos. But if a suggestion like YOU LOOK LIKE YOU MIGHT NOT FEEL GREAT TODAY, even if I don't think it's right, triggers a sort of self-reflection that I don't think I currently get from the app (tho it might not sit well/work for others--WE'RE ALL DIFFERENT, KIDS).

In other words I don't think the idea of this existing is inherently bad but in this context blaarrghhhh
posted by nogoodverybad at 5:45 AM on November 13, 2015

also why didn't they include "dying inside" as a possible result
posted by nogoodverybad at 6:00 AM on November 13, 2015 [1 favorite]

I tested it on a picture of a friend glaring at the grave of Enrico Donadalo, and it thinks he's neutral or happy which I assure you is wrong.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 6:07 AM on November 13, 2015

The Donald is angry...
Hilary is great at poker
Bernie is disgusted
posted by zeoslap at 6:59 AM on November 13, 2015

Is this where I get to link to real-time face substitution in JavaScript?
posted by miyabo at 7:16 AM on November 13, 2015

Nice way to add more tension to family photos given at least one person in each of their example photos might (just might, mind you) actually be disgusted.
posted by yerfatma at 8:03 AM on November 13, 2015

If you're divorced, put your wedding pictures through here. It's illuminating.
posted by desjardins at 11:59 AM on November 13, 2015 [2 favorites]

Constipated, possibly suffering from a stroke. Damnit!
posted by Literaryhero at 12:53 AM on November 14, 2015