Published on the 03/10/2013 | Written by Newsdesk
The bank is using the technology to help get New Zealanders talking about their finances, but the software creator nViso sees many other business applications for the technology…
In a world-first BNZ has launched the next instalment of its ‘be good with money’ marketing campaign, this time using advanced facial recognition software to help New Zealanders understand how they really feel about their finances.
Called EmotionScan, the software, created in partnership with psychologist Dr Stuart Carr and Swiss emotion recognition software company nViso, uses advanced emotion recognition software to analyse facial expressions as participants listen to a series of scenarios designed around eight financial areas of interest.
Participants can visit www.emotionscan.co.nz to watch the scenarios online whilst being recorded by their webcam. The software captures the micro facial movements on 188 points on the face and maps them in real-time against an internationally recognised set of universal emotions. Users will then receive their results in the hope that they will go on to seek financial advice. You can also visit the main Wellington BNZ branch and one of Auckland’s main bus shelters to try out the technology.
BNZ chief marketing officer, Craig Herbison, says, “We know that only nine percent of people strongly believe that they are competent at managing their finances, so we wanted to provide them with a way of honestly assessing what areas of their financial planning they need to address. We think that if we can help New Zealanders to face up to how they really feel about money, then we can help to set them on track in addressing any areas they’re concerned about and putting them more in control of their money.”
According to nViso’s CEO and co-founder, Tim Llewellynn, this is the first time that the 3D facial imaging has been used in a real-time one-on-one diagnostic experience.
“No one else does this in real-time in a live experience on the web,” he says, adding that no one else has personalised it to such an extent before either, showing participants the results and inviting discussion.
nViso focuses on applying its technology to the interactive marketing and market research fields, but Llewellynn says this is the first time a project has bridged the two areas.
While his company is comfortably focused on these areas for now, and is working on getting into the movie industry, he can also see a host of applications in e-learning, e-health, security screening and the automotive industry, to name just a few, and welcomes interest in these areas for nViso’s developer platform which gives partners access to its 3D facial imaging technology.
“We will see more and more different application domains coming out, especially mobile devices now you have the camera and computing power to deal with it, so that will be the next big application area,” said Llewellynn.
In the meantime, the EmotionScan campaign has already seen success, with approximately 6-10,000 unique visitors logging on in the first day.
To see a video about the technology behind EmotionScan click here.
