The Evolution of Emotional Recognition

The past two decades have seen a quiet security revolution. Since the 1990s, extraordinary new technologies have been developed in areas such as biometrics, the capacities of databases and search facilities have grown exponentially, and now more than ever states seem willing to place enormous populations under surveillance. From the US to Europe and from South America to the Middle East, we are living in worlds in which our bodies are becoming passports to spaces and privileges. This presentation traces the history of automated face recognition, from early efforts during the 19th century to today’s ‘lively’ 3D imaging systems. A key new direction in this field involves the joining together of face recognition systems with affective computing in order to recognise human emotional states. This presentation suggests some of the ways to think about the automated recognition of human emotions configured as potential security threats.

About the speaker

Mark Maguire is an Anthropologist who specializes in international migration and security. He is the author of ‘Differently Irish’ (Woodfield Press 2004) and co-author of ‘After Asylum: Integration and Everyday Life’, which is forthcoming (2011) with Manchester University Press. He has held the Fulbright Advanced Scholar’s Award (2008) and has been Visiting Assistant Professorship (2008) and Visiting Associate Professor (2011) at Stanford’s University. He is Editor-in-Chief of the journal Social Anthropology and a member of the executive board of the European Association for Social Anthropologists. Mark lectures in the Department of Anthropology, National University of Ireland Maynooth.