14 DAY TRIAL // Machine learning has evolved a lot lately, and Microsoft is one of the companies that are investing big to continue the research in this field. After launching several services based on machine learning, such as How-Old.net and MyMoustache.net, the company’s ready to go one step forward with new and updated Project Oxford, a set of tools that were originally introduced last spring.
Basically, with Project Oxford, Microsoft is offering developers the necessary machine learning technology and APIs to develop new systems and services that could be used for better interaction with human beings.
Ryan Galgon, a senior program manager within Microsoft’s Technology and Research group, has presented the improved Project Oxford tools at Future Decoded, revealing a new emotion detection service that can tell people how they feel just by scanning their photos.
Emotion tool to automatically detect what you feel
As you can see in the photo included in this article, the service analyzes a photo and groups feelings in eight different categories, namely anger, contempt, disgust, fear, happiness, neutral, sadness, and surprise.
“Developers might want to use these tools to create systems that marketers can use to gauge people’s reaction to a store display, movie or food. Or, they might find them valuable for creating a consumer tool, such as a messaging app, that offers up different options based on what emotion it recognizes in a photo,” Microsoft says, citing Galgon.
Obviously, the opportunity to create very advanced projects is available to everyone, and starting today, the emotion tool can be accessed by any developer as a public beta.
At the same time, the company has also announced that, by the end of the year, it will release new tools as part of a limited free trial, including spell check, video, speaker recognition, improved face APIs, and custom recognition intelligent services, all based on machine learning.