Walmart Creating Facial Recognition Tech to Understand Customers Moods

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is developing technology that will monitor customers' facial expressions to detect frustrated or unhappy shoppers. The technology uses video cameras at checkout to identify “varying levels of dissatisfaction,” and will notify employees in other parts of the store, ordering them to report to a checkout register and attempt to alleviate distress. Understanding that it's easier to retain existing customers than trying to acquire new ones through advertising, Walmart hopes the new solution will help stores be proactive in responding to customers' issues before they have a chance to complain. Additionally, the technology will allow for analysis of trends in shoppers' purchasing behavior over time, the patent filing revealed, which will help stores detect changes in purchase habits due to dissatisfaction.