Computers better at spotting fake smiles than humans Mohammed Ehsan Hoque, an expert in developing computers which can respond tyo human emotions, said: "Getting the timing right is very crucial if you want to be perceived as sincere and genuine with your smiles." His team's video analysis of smiles found that the progression of frustrated and delighted of smiles was quite different: Often, the happy smiles built up gradually, while frustrated smiles appeared quickly but faded fast. Mr Ehsan Hoque, a researcher at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology, found that computers programmed with this information could tell a genuine smile better than human observers. The research could pave the way for computers that better assess the emotional states of their users and then respond accordingly. It could also help teach people who have difficulty interpreting expressions, such as those with autism, to more accurately gauge people's expressions. In experiments conducted at MIT's Media Lab, people were asked to act out expressions of delight or frustration, as webcams recorded their expressions. While being recorded they were then asked to fill out an online form designed to cause frustration or invited to watch a video designed to cause a delighted response. When asked to feign frustration, 90 per cent of subjects did not smile, said Mr Hoque. But when they were genuinely frustrated, having filled out the detailed online form only to find the information deleted after pressing the 'submit' button, 90 percent did smile. Observers were shown the smiles that resulted from watching the cute video of a child and those caused by frustration and could only correctly interpret them half the time. Mr Ehsan Hoque said: "The acted responses were much easier to classify accurately as delight or frustrationthan the real responses. When trying to interpret images of real responses, people performed no better than chance, assessing these correctly only about 50 per cent of the time. He added: "A goal is to help people with face-to-face communication. People with autism are taught that a smile means someone is happy but this shows it's not that simple. Another goal is to make a computer that's more intelligent and respectful. The findings may also be useful to those involved in customer service or marketing. Mr Hoque said: "Just because a customer is smiling, that doesn't necessarily mean they're satisfied. Knowing the difference could be important in gauging how best to respond - the underlying meaning behind the smile is crucial. Psychologist Professor Jeffrey Cohn, of the University of Pittsburgh, who was not involved in this research, says the work 'breaks new ground with its focus on frustration, a fundamental human experience'. He added: "The MIT group may be the first to implicate smiles in expressions of negative emotion. This is very exciting work that integrates psychology, computer vision and machine learning to generate new knowledge. It is an important reminder that not all smiles are positive. There has been a tendency to assume enjoyment whenever smiles are seen. The research is published in the journal IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing.