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Smile and the world smiles with you … but frown and your mobile will know you’re having a bad day, or, at least it will if the researchers at the U.K.’s University of Manchester have anything to do with it.

U.K. tech site TechEye reports that the boffins (scientists) are close to culminating a 20 year research program funded by the EU’s Mobile Biometrics project on facial recognition software which could become the norm on many upcoming smartphones.

Of course, it would not be the first time mobile has flirted with facial recognition, but the researchers in Manchester say their technology is so advanced the software could even detect the person’s mood as well as being “unrivalled for speed and accuracy.”

Dr. Phil Tresadern, lead researcher on the project said in a statement that “Existing mobile face trackers give only an approximate position and scale of the face,” whereas his team’s model “runs in real-time and accurately tracks a number of landmarks on and around the face such as the eyes, nose, mouth and jaw line.”

So, how does it all work? “A mobile phone with a camera on the front captures a video of your face and tracks twenty-two facial features. This can make face recognition more accurate, and has great potential for novel ways of interacting with your phone,” explained Tresadern.

The software has already been tested out on Nokia Corp.’s N900 phone, which you can see in the following video:

The possibilities for the software seem limitless, ranging from more accurate ways to unlock your phone and log into websites, to augmented reality, to games and apps which rely on facial movements and, yes, even helping your phone know what kind of a mood you’re in. So it can block those annoying calls from your mother-in-law automatically.

Gotta love progress.