Blowfish12: Kinect to watch your emotions and serve up ads

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Kinect to watch your emotions and serve up ads

Online adverts are already tailored to your search and browsing history, but now Microsoft has plans to add emotions to the mix. In a recently revealed patent application the company suggests that using its Kinect sensor to analyze your face and body language for emotions could help companies better target their ads. Emotional analysis of emails, search terms and even your online gaming performance could also influence the ads you see.

Just as advertisers currently bid on certain search terms, the patent suggests a company could choose which emotions would match to its adverts. For example, happy people are unlikely to click weight-loss ads, but they might be in the market for a new gadget. Meanwhile, sad people don't want to hear about club nights and confused people may be looking for a technical support firm to help them out.

Microsoft has previously hinted at using Kinect to bring player's emotions into games, but perhaps rather than new emotional game mechanics, we'll soon see ad-supported games that adjust to your mood? The patent suggests that in addition to watching players with Kinect, games could assign emotional states depending on whether you are winning or losing.

Blowfish12@2012 blowfish12.tk Author: Sudharsun. P. R.