Ever heard of a ‘smile check policy‘? Yeah, me neither. I once had to get my retina scanned to get into a public restroom, but the employees at Keihin Electric Express Railway in Japan actually have to smile. And no, I don’t mean they’re encouraged to, they fucking HAVE to. Facial recognition software is used to determine whether employees are entering work every morning happy enough to work soldering inanimate panels of metal and plastic, or banging away at their computers. So how does this enforced fun monster work?
The device analyzes the facial characteristics of a person, including eye movements, lip curves and wrinkles, and rates a smile on a scale between 0 and 100 percent using a camera and computer.
For those with low scores, advice like “You still look too serious,” or “Lift up your mouth corners,” will be displayed on the screen.
Some 530 employees of the Tokyo-based railway company will check their smiles with Smile Scan before starting work each day. They will print out and carry around an image of their best smile in an attempt to remember it.
I don’t know about you guys, but nothing makes me smile more than being scanned first thing in the morning by a humorless corporate fucknuckle in a booth, then carrying around a reminder of my horrible morning ordeal on a lanyard. WHEEEE!
/Paul
(Link via Geekoligie)
5 responses so far ↓
1 Peta // Jul 9, 2009 at 10:47 am
This is so very Brave New World. It scares the shit out of me.
2 Aqualec // Jul 9, 2009 at 11:15 am
Will have to check this out when i go to Japan in september!
3 Taylor // Jul 9, 2009 at 12:37 pm
How much you wanna bet they have these at Disneyland?
4 ryan leach // Jul 9, 2009 at 11:52 pm
Idea, hold the lanyard up close to the camera, best smile everyday!
5 Kia // Jul 14, 2009 at 2:42 pm
Headbutt the webcam, anyone?
Snape would be fired day 1 if he worked there. The best he can manage is a greasy vindictive sneer.
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