Lost the Remote? Use Your Face

coondoggie writes "A researcher has discovered a way to use facial expressions to speed and slow video playback. By using a combination of facial expression recognition software and automated tutoring technology Jacob Whitehill, a computer science Ph.D. student from UC San Diego's Jacobs School of Engineering, is leading the project that ultimately is part of a larger venture to use automated facial expression recognition to make robots more effective teachers. The researchers recently conducted a pilot test with 8 people that demonstrated information within the facial expressions people make while watching recorded video lectures can be used to predict a person's preferred viewing speed of the video and how difficult a person perceives the lecture at each moment in time."

Comments

Excellent teachers...

[Thelasko]

can do this. I've noticed bad college professors just keep plowing through the subject. The best ones will look at the students faces and say, "Lets back up a little," when they see blank stares from their pupils.

I don't think the ability to determine how difficult a concept is to grasp is the breakthrough here. I think it's the fact that a machine can do it.

Obligatory Hitchhikers...

[camperdave]

For years radios had been operated by means of pressing buttons and turning dials; then as the technology became more sophisticated the controls were made touch-sensitive -- you merely had to brush the panels with your fingers; now all you had to do was wave your hand in the general direction of the components and hope. It saved a lot of muscular expenditure of course, but meant that you had to sit infuriatingly still if you wanted to keep listening to the same programme.