Canon's China offices will let employees into the office only if they are 'smiling'

There are hundreds of languages in the world, but a smile speaks them all - Anonymous

Remember the emoji driven, 'be happy' social dystopia depicted in the Black Mirror episode 'Nosedive'? Guess what? Canon has taken it to heart. In their Chinese offices, Canon has implemented a face recognition camera that will use machine learning to determine if a worker is smiling and only then let them gain access to the workplace.

Outlined in a report from Financial Times, China's growing fascination with surveillance has begun to impact the lives of the country's tech workers to an unhealthy extreme. It is using CCTV camera's and AI to gauge people on productivity by analysing their work patterns and the time they spend in front of the computer. They even track their movements outside of the offices using mobile apps and see how much time each employee spends on lunch.

In a presser, Canon described the technology as "smiley face recognition experience" and labelled it as a smart solution for "Masterpiece Space", whatever that means. Canon claimed that technology was meant to, "allow everyone to relax" and "gain health with a smile".

The end goal is to create a, "pleasant work environment" and "increasing efficiency". It's a little unnerving at how close these technologies are to being something straight out of a dystopian future.