According to a June 7 patent application, the company that built the Xbox 360 Kinect sensor is looking to target advertisements based on your emotions.
Conventionally, a user enters a search query in a Web browser, and advertisers may bid on the request in order to advertise accordingly, the patent said. Some advertisers may choose to target delivery based on gender, time of day, or location. But the typical ad may have difficulty representing its product because keywords fail to completely convey a user's context, Microsoft said in its patent.
Through the Kinect's camera, users would be studied for reactions, speech patterns, and body movements, all stored in an online log and run through an algorithm to determine an emotional state that is positive, happy, confused, neutral, negative, angry, or sad, according to the patent. Ad targeting will also take into consideration the user's ZIP code, keywords, age, location, or language.
"An advertisement engine selects advertisements that are emotionally compatible based on the assigned emotional states and the desired emotional states provided by the advertisers," the patent said.