This image is used only for demonstration.

A Chinese firm announced it had developed technology to efficiently detect human emotion, even through using cameras on mobile phones.

The technology, the first of its kind in China, can detect and analyse human emotion in videos and images captured by cameras, according to a China Electronics Technology Group Corporation statement.

"Human facial data, collected by cameras enhanced by the software, will be transferred to a server and analysed through algorithms," the statement said. "It can read a person's cardiac rate based on changes of color in a certain area on a human face."

It is based on the development of facial recognition technology and the expansion of databases, according to a report by Xinhuanet.

The company's facial recognition software has recognized over 98.23 per cent of 500,000 human faces it has tested so far, the company said. The accuracy rate reached 99.5 per cent when the software was used to identify certain facial features and compared them with different faces.