Sony Ericsson has just patented a system that allows a phone or PMP to choose music for you to listen to based on your facial expression. My, how unnecessarily complicated and impractical!

Just look at how the patent, entitled "Generating music playlist based on facial expression," says the system would work:

"FIG. 8 [shown above] 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)." Sony Ericsson patent

Look, I can appreciate wanting to make our gadgets tune in to how we're feeling and react appropriately. But does this really make sense? If I'm in a good mood, that doesn't mean I'm grinning like an idiot. And just because I'm smiling doesn't mean I want to hear a certain song. Facial expressions don't translate mood exactly, and a phone like this would definitely never be smart enough to figure out just what I want to listen to. I do a fine job of reading my moods and selecting the appropriate music already, thank you very much. [Slashgear via USEB]

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