Have you ever rolled your eyes or maybe even fallen asleep during a lecture? Imagine the lecture hall would have cameras installed that track your every move – a phenomenon that has become reality in Chinese classrooms. Several Chinese schools have installed facial recognition technology in order to track the attentiveness of students. The computers track students’ emotions such as “neutral, happy, sad, disappointed, angry, scary and surprised” (Connor, 2019). If the system finds a student is distracted or seems to be feeling unwell, a notification will be sent to the teacher, in order for him or her to act accordingly.
Emotion tracking is however not only used in classrooms, but also in employment. Many workers in China are equipped with wireless sensors installed in helmets or caps that feed information about their brainwaves to their employers (Thomas, 2019). Employers claim to use these reading to increase efficiency by changing shift schedules, break times and allocating tasks according to their staff’s livelihood and mood. However, this practice raises severe privacy concerns, as it is highly intrusive and can induce high stress levels for employees.
Use of emotion monitoring is expanding rapidly through China. Recruiters for example use emotional data to analyze the expressions of potential job candidates. Algorithms can measure whether you are telling the truth and whether your level of self-confidence is evident for the skills you claim to have (Mozur, 2019). Here problems of discrimination and potential biases that the software may induce arise.
Other advances in emotion tracking can for example be seen in the automotive industry, the banking industry or in marketing practices. As various other industries are beginning to use emotion monitoring, this continues to increase the conception of China as a surveillance state.
What are your thoughts on this phenomenon? Do you think similar practices could spread to the Western world?
Connor, N. (2019). Chinese school uses facial recognition to monitor student attention in class. [online] The Telegraph. Available at: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/05/17/chinese-school-uses-facial-recognition-monitor-student-attention/ [Accessed 16 Oct. 2019].
Thomas, D. (2019). The cameras that know if you’re happy – or a threat. [online] BBC News. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-44799239 [Accessed 16 Oct. 2019].
Mozur, P. (2019). One Month, 500,000 Face Scans: How China Is Using A.I. to Profile a Minority. [online] Nytimes.com. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/14/technology/china-surveillance-artificial-intelligence-racial-profiling.html [Accessed 16 Oct. 2019]
What an interesting subject! I never heard of the use facial recognition technology by schools. While reading the blog, I was wondering why schools would use this. When the school tracks the attentiveness of students during class and gets a notification of this, it might lead to better grades of the students (since their behavior will be corrected). However, it is an expensive technology to have for schools. I was wondering if the benefits would weight out the costs. Also, I believe that students should be intrinsically motivated to pay attention during class instead of externally. Maybe this technology would only decrease the intrinsic motivation of students since they are, sort of, being “punished” if they don’t pay attention. Besides, for the teacher it is also very time consuming to get the notifications and correct each student. When I look at the practical implementation of the technology I think it will not work in classes of >50 students (+/-). So, my biggest concern about this new technology is that costs will outweigh the benefits. Further development of this technology could lead to better implementation, since now the technology used in schools is in the starting phase.
Hadn’t heard of this phenomena yet and so I’m positively surprised by it! I don’t only think it will spread to the Western world, I really hope it does, in all honesty. You might be questioning why, but considering the fact that 16% of the Dutch population has experienced a burnout in 2018, might already say enough. Many employees are afraid to open up and share their true inner feelings and thoughts with employers. We have the feeling to strictly keep personal and professionals thoughts/feelings separate, are afraid to talk managers about how they really feel, are afraid to ask for a day off, and so on and so forth. So I believe with the technologies that are used in China, and especially the possibility for the data to be sent to teachers, or in this case managers, would already have a direct impact on bringing down the burnout rate of many employees in this country alone