We all have bad days... but wouldn't it be cool if your computer could sense your frustration and adjust accordingly in order to help you calm down? Emotionally savvy computers would be especially helpful to those who spend their days in front of their screens, not to mention students studying for exams or people just learning a program. But is it possible?
According to Discover News, computer comfort is on the way! With emotion-sensing technology, one day in the not too distant future, your computer will be able to show you it's more "sensitive" side! Computer scientist Christian Peter of the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics in Rostock, Germany, and his colleagues are working on a system that collects data about a person's emotional state using sight, sound and touch technology.
The system interprets the information it receives and reacts accordingly. What does that mean to you? Perceiving the user is agitated, an emotion-sensitive computer might tone down the background color of the screen, turn down background music, enlarge or reduce graphics, adjust the flow of information being presented to the user or simply apologize.
"With humans, somebody who ignores the feelings of others is not liked as much as somebody who shows some sort of emotional feedback. Why should it be different with computers?" said Peter.
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But sensing emotions from a person is not always an easy matter, even when you're human! Currently, it's even harder for computers! Methods for collecting a user's data require electrode attachments that monitor their behavior in a laboratory setting. Not exactly the comforts of home or the shoulder of a good friend!
There are less-obtrusive means, such as using a video to monitor gestures or a recorder to analyze voice, which allow the user to behave more naturally, but the data can break down if the person moves too far away from the recorder.
To make the technology more viable, the team is researching a wireless electronic glove that unobtrusively senses a person's emotions while they interact freely with a computer. The glove measures heart rate, blood pressure and skin temperature then transmits information wirelessly to a base unit, which stores it on a memory card or sends it to a computer database. Software written by Peter's team analyzes the data and retrieves patterns that indicate certain emotions.
For example, if a person's heart rate increases quickly and their skin temperature falls below a certain threshold, it may indicate they are angry. A different combination of other variables suggests the person is surprised.
The Fraunhofer team is also working on technology that will read facial features using an ordinary webcam. The goal is to collect all of the emotion-indicating information in one database, analyze it in real time and program the computer to respond immediately - to your ever changing mood!
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