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Face recognition on phones we have; now emotion recognition?

Way back in March, there was quite a little fuss about a camera phone which could recognise its users' faces, and refuse to work if it had been stolen. So imagine the excitement when an Australian reporter uncovered a mobile phone application "which gathers information into how adolescents experience and respond to distress" today!

The original story was somewhat sceptically received, of course. Would it recognise you if you put a cap on? got caught in a storm? spent the night with a new lover? - well, there was a (long and rather dull) video demo which showed how it worked, and many were impressed.

So this week, it's really quite exciting to hear: "Mobile phones to detect adolescent depression" - the emotion recognition project was "developed by Object Consulting -- and is believed to be the first mobile phone application used in healthcare field research in Australia."

It's real, and it's working: "A focus group of 40 adolescents supplied with Nokia 6260 smart phones pre-loaded with the application is presently testing its effectiveness. A larger study -- involving 400 young people -- is scheduled for next year."

And how does it work? "It initially comprises a set of questionnaires that pop-up on the phone at random intervals three to four times during the day." And worse: they results can't be transmitted back to the research HQ because most Australian teens have pre-pay phones, without WAP or Internet access.

It's enough to make you cynical about headline writers. The original face recognition story and this story about the questionnaire are both on ZDNet.