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A Camera with A Smile Detector!

By
Real Estate Agent with BCR Realtors 262359

How do it Know?  While waiting in Best Buy today for for my lap top to be looked at for repairs, I wandered the isles drooling over giant flat screens, new phones, and state of the art cameras. Then I saw a little sign beside  a Sony  "Cyber Shot" digital camera.  

NEVER MISS ANOTHER SMILE!  it said.

Since the repair was taking longer than expected, I was becoming bored,  so I started reading the fine print on Advertisement beside the sign.  Supposedly this little camera has a setting that triggers the camera to go off when it detects a "smile."

Wait a minute! I did a double take.  How do it know? How on earth  can a machine detect a smile. Does it have a smile-o meter built into it?  How does itknow the difference between a smile and a frown? What constitutes a smile? A big gleaming set of teeth and gums showing? Or will a sultry "just lips" botox type smile work? And what about those folks that walk around with permanent smiles etched onto their faces?  Do those count as meaningful smiles to the machine? 

Oh...........Apparently tests showed the camera doesn't recognize cartoon face smiles as smiles.  ;O)

Comments (10)

Gary Woltal
Keller Williams Realty - Flower Mound, TX
Assoc. Broker Realtor SFR Dallas Ft. Worth

And Trey, if there's a permanent smile affixed to someone's face does the shutter keep going off?

Dec 01, 2008 02:10 PM
Trey Thurmond
BCR Realtors - College Station, TX
College Station , Texas Homes

Gary

Now that's a good point!

Dec 01, 2008 02:26 PM
Steve Shatsky
Dallas, TX

Hey there Trey... What happens if you have a perpetual frown?  Does the camera refuse to take the picture?  Sort of a happy cameras for happy people scenario?

Dec 01, 2008 02:35 PM
Myrl Jeffcoat
Sacramento, CA
Greater Sacramento Realtor - Retired

I wonder how the camera determines the smile from the wrinkles :-)  I also have an aunt that often looks like a deer caught in the headlights - but only after 4:00 pm, when her "happy hour" begins.

Dec 01, 2008 03:55 PM
Gene Allen
Fathom Realty - Cary, NC
Realty Consultant for Cary Real Estate

I got this off a site about a Sony camera.  It said it worked but not all the time.  It is a scene setting so to take other pictures you have to remember to change scenes as you can't take a picture of anything that is not smiling.

It looks at when a subject's cheeks and cheekbones are going higher. The camera is more likely to detect a broad smile when your teeth are showing. Smile-detection accuracy also rises, Sony says, if your subject narrows his or her eyes, and their bangs don't hang to the eyes.

Conditions have to be just right. Smile shutter may not work if the person you're shooting turns her head, covers her mouth, dons sunglasses or wears thicker eyeglass frames.

Dec 02, 2008 04:16 AM
Northern Virginia Real Estate Photography - Bryant Payden
B. Payden Photography, LLC - Manassas, VA
Northern Virginia Real Estate Photography

Trey-

My Canon EOS 5d also has a smile detector, a professional behind the camera looking through the viewfinder that can press a shutter button when the framing, composition, lighting and yes the smile all come together!  =0)  Have a great day!

Dec 02, 2008 08:10 AM
Judi Morgan
RETIRED - San Antonio, TX
San Antonio, TX Real Estate

Trey, this is a new feature for me.  Obviously I haven't been looking at cameras in a while.  I bought my latest camera a little over a year ago.  Now, next time I go to Best Buy I'm heading straight for the camera dept.  I want to "play" with the camera -- maybe the time I'm ready for a new camera, I'll consider a camera with the "smile detector".  :)

Dec 03, 2008 03:48 PM
Raylene Lewis
Century 21 Beal, Inc. - College Station, TX

Wow! Thats pretty crazy!

Dec 04, 2008 12:51 AM
Trey Thurmond
BCR Realtors - College Station, TX
College Station , Texas Homes

Judi

I love digital cameras but some are too complex for me. ;)

Dec 04, 2008 02:27 AM
Judi Morgan
RETIRED - San Antonio, TX
San Antonio, TX Real Estate

Trey, yeah, I know -- some of them are really complicated.  The one I have will do a lot of things -- I just haven't had time to learn everything.  By the time I do, it'll be time to buy a new one. 

Dec 04, 2008 12:57 PM