April 21, 2005 Face-reading is an art as ancient as life itself, and without doubt is the broadest bandwidth input we all have in determining the character and intentions of those we meet face-to-face. In many Asian cultures, face-reading has been a respected profession and analytical tool for thousands of years, being used in the decision making process for everything from business to marriage. Now the ancient art of face-reading is being offered via the mobile phone as a paid service.
In many Asian cultures, China and Japan, face reading has been a respected profession and analytical tool for thousands of years, being used in the decision making process for everything from business to marriage.
Professional practitioners of kan-xiang (kahn-she-ahng) or face-readers, have been in existence in China for more than 2000 years, though for most of us, face-reading is intuitive and we all do it to continuously throughout our daily interactions to assess those we come in contact with, validate their verbal communications, assess their intentions, and respond appropriately depending on what we read from an individual’s face – good will, annoyance, fear, anger, happiness, contentment and the many other bits of information we display through our facial characteristics and communications.
According to the Chinese, the face offers a guide not only a person's mood, but also their character, health, personality, popularity, financial capabilities, social status and life expectancy. While our face influences our life, our life also influences (changes) our facial characteristics and they are worn for the world to see.
There are many fine textbooks on this ancient science, and it is interesting to see the science is now being “ported” to the mobile world by a Korean company. Zenitum Entertainment Computing, a Seoul-based start-up, has announced the “Mobile Face Reading”service which is based on the traditional asian face reading rules.
The service claims to be able to read a person’s fortune from a face in a photo taken by a camera phone. It works like this: the user takes a picture with a camera phone and uploads it to the service via MMS. Once the photo is uploaded, the user can log in to the service through WAP (Wireless Application Protocol).
The system detects facial features (eyes, lips, nose, chin and others) in the photo, then analyses the relative size and position of the facial features and this geometric information is analysed against the ancient rules to determine a final reading of the prospect’s fortunes.
From the service, users can get a “Whole Year Fortune,” “Romantic Relationship,” “Women-Only Fortune,” “General Everyday Fortune,” and “Erotic Forecasts.”
The service also offers a compatibility guide that requires two photos to be uploaded (one of each of the happy couple.
“Mobile Face Reading” is currently offered on Korea’s largest mobile Telco, SK Telecom, the nation’s largest Telco, and soon the system will be ported to other operators. The company has already signed service contract swith mobile service providers in China, Malaysia, and Taiwan.
“We are getting lots of inquiries from the courtiers of similar fortune telling traditions such as China, Japan and other south eastern countries” said Albert Kim, CEO and president.
Last year, the company established a legal presence in Delaware, USA and is preparing to launch the service in the United States in the coming months.