Smile and say “technology!”

Polish those pearly whites, everyone. Japanese company Omron Corp. has released new “smile-checking” software that instantly measures a person's happiness level.

The program analyzes wrinkles around the mouth and eyes, the space between lips, and other facial features to generate “smile ratings”-- basically, how happy or sad you are at a given moment. The company sees the software being useful in service industries, where positive attitudes and friendliness are critical for building relationships with customers.

However, does it worry anybody else that we're relying on robots to monitor human emotion? Surely we're not so far removed from one another in the workplace that we can't depend on face-to-face management to gauge when coworkers are grumpy or dissatisfied.

The irony is, using this software to monitor employees might only aggravate existing morale problems. If I were in customer service, and my manager told me to say cheese for the smile-robot, I'd be offended.  Plus, I’d be worried about why she couldn't figure out my true attitude on her own through reviews, meetings, and daily communication.

Besides, the smile checker could give ineffective managers an easy out. Why bother to keep employees happy and fulfilled with constructive leadership and fresh challenges -- and make those smiles genuine -- when you can use a digital watchdog to browbeat them into beaming?

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's first see if this technology even makes its way to the U.S., or becomes widespread. Until then, grin and bear it. ;-)

Posted by Roseanne D.