Given the technology’s capability to “read” the target individual’s facial expression, its applications are wide, especially for end users with the need to study consumer behavior or recognize malicious intent.
The emotion detection and recognition market is expected to hit US$22.7 billion by 2020 from an estimated $5.7 billion in 2015, a compound annual growth rate of 31.9 percent, said MarketsandMarkets in a recent report.
According to the market research firm, several factors have driven the growth of this technology. “Emotion detection and recognition has seen umpteen developments over the past few years, owing to the technological innovations day-by-day. It enables recognizing a person’s emotional state through both voice and non-voice mediums,” it said. “Apart from these, growing adoption of cloud-based technology and growing partnerships among companies in this market have created huge growth opportunities for this market. Moreover, increasing awareness among customers and rapid adoption of this technology is boosting the growth of this market even further.”
Applications wide-ranging
Given the technology’s capability to “read” the target individual’s facial expression, its applications are wide, especially for businesses with the need to study consumer behavior. For example, Emotient, a San Diego startup whose software can recognize emotions from a database of microexpressions that happen in a fraction of a second, has worked with Honda Motor and Procter & Gamble to gauge people’s emotions as they try out products, according to a report by Wall Street Journal. The same report also cited Affectiva, an emotion-detection software maker based in Waltham, Massachusetts, which has used webcams to monitor consumers as they watch ads for companies like Coca-Cola and Unilever.
Needless to say, the technology, which can detect malicious intent, has security applications as well and can be deployed at malls, airports, sports arenas, and other public venues to maintain public safety. For fleet management operators, the technology can also come in handy, as cameras enabled with emotion recognition can alert operators of drivers who seem tired or fatigued.
“The market for emotion detection and recognition has shown positive results, thus leading to deployments across various end-user industries like defense and security agencies, enterprises, commercial, industrial, medical and healthcare, and marketing and advertisement, among others, which are contributing towards the growth of this market across the globe,” MarketsandMarkets said.
Geographically, North America is expected to dominate the market with highest market share over the forecast period, whereas Asia-Pacific is likely to witness significant growth, with the emerging economies such as China, Japan, South Korea, and India being the key market for emotion detection and recognition, MarketsandMarkets said. Technology-wise, natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning take up the majority share of the market, it said.
However, market growth may be affected by certain factors such as lack of any governing bodies and regulations and misinterpretation in analysis of emotion, the research firm said, adding market players are also likely to face certain challenges like power consumption of wearable computing devices, impact on businesses, and technical challenges ahead.