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Being one of the biggest technology companies in the world, Microsoft is regularly working on new pieces of experimental software, and the latest thinks it knows how happy you are.
It’s all part of something called Project Oxford, a collection of projects aimed at exploring future technologies and how they can be used. And now they’ve created a website that can scan and read your emotions in photos.
Though Microsoft does emphasise that this is based on machine-learning, and isn’t always accurate.
But just how accurate is it?
Well, when we ran this image of out technology reporter Martyn Landi through the system the scan showed that he was very happy. Which sounds about right considering the photo was taken on holiday, while holding a tasty-looking cocktail.
In comparison, an image uploaded taken at work showed more neutrality, and less happiness.
So how exactly does it work? Well, Microsoft’s software uses the shape of the face as it makes expressions in order to understand the emotions it is conveying. These are broken down into the eight variants seen on-screen, with a value assigned to each depending on how prominent it thinks that emotion is.
With this in mind then, what can we learn more about the true emotions of celebrities just from their faces in photos?
A very good fit for James Bond in that Craig often appears brooding and isn’t afraid of confrontation when facing the press on the red carpet. Most of photos suggest something similar, and indeed Project Oxford’s Emotion Recognition software gets a similar impression.
So anger, disgust and contempt all featuring in Daniel’s face according to the software. But a touch of happiness too at least.
The man who famously does seemingly everything he can to avoid being seen smiling. But is he really that moody?
As you can see from the scan, Kanye is clearly happier than he’s letting on – staying mainly neutral, but with happiness being the second most present emotion. You old softie, Yeezy.
Incidentally, Kim Kardashian was even happier, but neutral remained the most dominant emotion.
Another famous for not smiling in public, Victoria is said to be much livelier behind the scenes, but what does Project Oxford think?
So while doing a great job of staying neutral, a few other things have sneaked through; including a reasonable amount of happiness apparently.
Keeping a stoic and regal exterior during public occasions is something the Queen is quite used to by now. But what does her face really say?
Plenty of happiness to go with that neutrality. We’d also love to know what the element of surprise was.
He’s having a pretty tough time of it at the moment, what with the wheels having fallen off of his Chelsea team. A penny then, for the thoughts of Jose Mourinho.
The digust and contempt doesn’t sound too surprising given his side’s recent run of results. Good to see there’s still some happiness in there though.
She’s having a pretty good time of right now, so you’d expect Taylor Swift to be loving life, right?
OK, so there’s a little bit of contempt there - maybe it’s being aimed in the same direction as whoever ‘Bad Blood’ is about.
If you want to try out Project Oxford for yourself you can, by going here and uploading your own images.
