Question

    Imagine having a bedroom that interacts with you. If you’re sad, it will arrange for some of your friends to come over to cheer you up. If you’re happy, it might respond by playing your favorite game with you.

    Does it sound like something out of a science-fiction movie? Well, it’s really something out of the Georgia Institute of Technology. Irfan Essa works at the computer lab there. He has developed a computer system that can look at you and recognize your mood. He calls it the “expression recognition system.” Essa says, “We are trying to get computers to act like a human brain. But the human brain is not like one computer, it is like many working together.”

    In Essa’s system, many computers work together. First, a camera in the bedroom takes a picture of your face. The camera feeds the image to a computer. In the computer’s memory, there are pictures showing how the muscles of your face move when you are in different moods. For example, cheek muscles move in one way when you are happy and smiling and in another way when you are nervous and tense. The computer compares your picture to the face-muscle images stored in its memory. It tries to find the best match. That’s how it figures out your mood! Then the computer sends messages to other computers in the system. If you look happy, a computer may put on lively music. If you look tired and discouraged, a different computer may turn on the TV for you.

    How could the “expression recognition system” help us in important ways? Essa thinks that the system can help us create computers that are better teachers. Many people learn new skills through computer programs. “When I teach, I look at people’s faces,” Essa explains. “If my students look confused, I know they didn’t understand. With this technology, a computer can also know if a student is learning.”

    Today, this new technology can be found only in labs, but Essa predicts we’ll see it out of the lab in a few years. So get ready. One day, you might walk into a room that will soon become your best friend.

1. Can the new computer system look at you and recognize your mood？

2. What happens first in the bedroom in Essa’s system?

3. Will the computer put on lively music or turn on the TV if you look happy?

4. How does the “expression recognition system” make computers better teachers?

5. What will future rooms be like?

Answer 1

1. Yes.

2. A camera in the bedroom takes a picture of your face.

3. Put on lively music.

4. It can help computers to know if a student is learning.

5. They will be friendly, smart, more comfortable, and more modern.