Smile Scanners For Workers Introduced In Japan

By on November 12, 2012 in News 9

Soon the start of the workday will entail submitting to your daily smile scan, the Guardian reports:

A Japanese train company is scanning its employees to make sure they smile properly. Each morning, according to reports, the 500 or so employees of the Keihin Electric Express Railway Company have to beam stupidly into a camera hooked up to a computer. The machine then analyses things like eye movement, lip curvature and facial wrinkles, and rates the overall quality of their smile on a scale ranging from 0 (suicidal) to 100 (delirious).

Apparently, should the computer deem workers to be too gloomy it flashes up helpful advice like “You still look too serious”, or “Lift up your mouth corners”. It then prints out a personalised “ideal smile” for employees to carry with them and refer to should they feel their spirits flagging at any point during the day.

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  • Anarchy Pony

    You ever feel like you just woke up in a work of dystopian fiction? ‘Cause I do.

    • Eschenbacher

      Naw, I’ve been tracking this for decades, good you’re seeing it too bro.

    • Apathesis

      Sometimes I wonder if those novels were prophetic or if they merely served as a blueprint.

      • Anarchy Pony

        I think that Ham Rove once said that he thought 1984 should be used as blueprint.

        • Apathesis

          I don’t doubt it. The future is really beginning (it’s really already started) to look like some sort of lovechild between The Terminator, Brave New World and 1984. Sprinkle in any other bits that seem fit.

          Now if you will excuse me, I’m going to listen to Brian Eno’s soundtrack to “For All Mankind” and try to forget about the abysmal possibility of our future.

  • alizardx

    Wait until this tech can be added into workplace video surveillance cameras. Suspected side-effect: increase of mental health problems and maybe increased violence in workplaces where used.

  • Haystack

    I think this type of thing generally is about degrading and infantilizing workers in order to make them feel powerless to change their condition.

  • Calypso_1

    What if you are deliriously suicidal or suicidally delirious?

  • Carl_Brutanananadilewski

    Bad CEO, no doughnut for you!