14 DAY TRIAL // It seems that Sony Ericsson plans to bring the idea of controlling a phone without touching designated buttons to a new level, as we learn today that the company has just patented a system that allows for the mobile phones to be controlled through facial expressions that are perceived via the device's camera. According to the news, Sony Ericsson's patent would enable the handset to change music tracks according to the analysis of visual mood.
The patent is called “Generating music playlist based on facial expression,” and describes the way in which a handset could capture the image of a user and make use of facial-recognition capabilities to build custom playlists in accordance with the listener’s mood. The recognition of moods would be based on particular facial characteristics that appear or on the comparison of the entire face of the listener against presets. At the same time, it seems that the system could also work in a hybrid manner, with both of the modalities included in it.
Moreover, the system is said to allow for even more complex implementations, as the company has suggested that it could even enable the recording of a brief video, which could track emotional states of happiness, sadness, surprise, anger, fear, disgust, neutrality, etc., which would be compared to musical characteristics of the tracks that are in the memory of the phone, something that would be similar to what the SenseMe application does at the moment.
Here's what the Sony Ericsson patent states at a certain point: “FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating the concepts described herein. As illustrated, David is listening to a Bruce Springsteen song on a mobile phone that includes a DMP. David is in a very happy mood because he recently found out that he won the lottery. As David adjusts the volume of the DMP, camera 260 may capture an image of David’s face. Based on the captured image, FER component 420 may determine that the facial expression of David matches a category (e.g., a happy mood category) contained in category field 514 of FER database 500. Category field 514 may include a previously linked song associated with the happy mood category (e.g., a song by Metallica).”
In addition to this patent, Sony Ericsson is reported to have yet another one, “Portable hands-free device with sensor,” which shows that the company is exploring even more areas in which to apply intelligent feature management based on the user's handling of the device. This patent talks about functions that could be passively controlled via capacitance, inductance, pressure, temperature, light, movement, or acoustical sensors.