Your Device Is Watching You Back: Microsoft Files Patent on Hyper Accurate ‘Face Reader’ Tech

Microsoft is developing a new type of face tracking technology that promises to be both cheaper and more accurate than competitors.

The face tracking tech aims to not just track people’s faces, but also “understand” expressions on human faces — a technology which could have wide-reaching impact in data driven advertising, allowing tech giants to learn even more about us and how we respond to content.

Microsoft aims to use the tech in its Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) video games, which usually require bulky headsets.

ReclaimTheNet talked to the CEO of an enterprise-focused AR and VR company that specializes in marketing, who outlined the possibilities.

Via ReclaimTheNet:

If Microsoft succeeds in making facial tracking cheap(er) and more efficient, said Glimpse Group’s VP Jake Maymar – then it could have on its hands “one of the most lucrative (AR and VR) metrics you can possibly have.”

Maymar went on to say that if Microsoft develops the system, then manufacturers will have no problem including it in their products, and added:

“That’s incredibly powerful. You can actually have a clear metric and be able to measure the impact of advertising, the impact of experiences, and the impact of connections with others.”

Understanding how users respond to content, whether AR, VR, or content on traditional text- and video-based platforms, is key to the ad-driven model employed by many big tech companies. The more they know about their users and how they behave, the easier it is to keep those users engaged.

Conversely, it could also tell tech companies how to display content to users in a way that doesn’t engage them — which could have troubling implications for “shadowbanning,” or covert techniques to suppress information.

Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election. Follow him on Twitter @AllumBokhari.