How many times a day do you smiley? I think it's safe to bet that anyone that uses the Internet at all, smileys at least once a day. So anyone who does a lot of chatting, or just about anything on a personal level on the Internet will be happy about this one. Face Alive is a new program developed by a group of researchers from both US and Taiwan that is trying to come up with a way to make your Internet and chat smileys actually be you making the expressions. Read the specifics on this blog.

How it works is that you download a picture of yourself with a neutral expression, and you download the Face Alive Software and bam, every time you wink at someone, the software makes your face wink for you. The person seeing your pic will see the image that you are winking at them.

Okay, I see the point here, sort of. Let's make the virtual world as real as possible. But seriously, has anyone there ever heard of the webcam? EBay, seven bucks. Same thing, except you almost get to stream the person in actual time. I am not sure what this face alive technology is replacing, other than being some sort of weird invention mixing emoticons and avatars but the whole thing kind of creeps me out. One of the head researchers suggests it could be used for distance learning, and should be available to mainstream applications soon. Again, I am stumped here. How much more mainstream than Yahoo IM do you need to get? Again, log on and flip on the webcam, and anyone I want to wink to, I will. I like the typed emoticon for other purposes. This emoticon is somewhat of a formal informality, and it currently serves its purpose very well. Not only this aspect, but one of the lures of the Internet is the false sense of anonymity it conveys. If I am receiving an inbox full of bulky winking pictures, it kind of takes that element out of it. And I am not sure I am ready to see that, or ready for many to see that side of me either. We will see if this one catches on.