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MIT lab develops glasses that can read another person's emotional state
- hebejebelus 15y agoFTA: "When Picard and el Kaliouby were calibrating their prototype, they were surprised to find that the average person only managed to interpret, correctly, 54 per cent of Baron-Cohen's expressions on real, non-acted faces. This suggested to them that most people - not just those with autism - could use some help sensing the mood of people they are talking to. "People are just not that good at it," says Picard. The software, by contrast, correctly identifies 64 per cent of the expressions." I kind of wonder how they did this testing. Much of the information we get about a person's mood is from what context there is (far more than comes from what's on their faces). There are people who cry out of joy, but if I saw a picture of one of these people, I'm sure it would look like sadness to me. Further, I don't like the sound of a future where people stop talking to other people because a light starts blinking. However, for the purposes of autism research and development, this is good. Better than good - this is excellent. I really hope there will be more research in this area, for the purpose of helping those who can't communicate well. (I suppose that contradicts what I said above. Perhaps there is a particular scale on which to rank necessity of aid in communication?)
- eru 15y ago> Further, I don't like the sound of a future where people stop talking to other people because a light starts blinking. I guess most people would become much better `raw' observers if they underwent a little training and got some feedback. (I remember the study that some scientist did about clothing and the point in the monthly fertility cycle of women. After a while as a side effect the researchers became experts at guessing the point in the menstrual cycle.)
- sliverstorm 15y agoI agree, the part on the little red light telling you not to talk was disconcerting at best. I can't help but envision a slippery-slope wherein soon computers are regulating all aspects of our conversations, at which point they cease to ever be meaningful.
- JoachimSchipper 15y agoOpen question: why do you feel computers regulating conversation is worse than computers regulating writing (from spell checking via grammar advice up to style advice)? It's not like you can't ignore either system.
- sliverstorm 15y agoSpell checking would be the equivalent of correcting pronunciation. I would hardly mind that. It's more the idea of computers controlling the actual flow and similarly the content of the conversation.
- btilly 15y agoIt is a well-known result. For instance you can test yourself at http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/surveys/smiles/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/surveys/smiles/.
- wazoox 15y agoOh, I remember doing this test eons ago. I fared surprisingly well today, 14/20.
- BasDirks 15y agoI thought I'd do bad, I'm not sure why: 16/20
- robinduckett 15y ago17/20 although I thought I had them all. Eyebrows don't move if you're faking. Also the way they returned to stone cold normality after the smile gave it away.
- zasz 15y agoIt makes sense that people's ability to detect true emotion is capped, though. It's useful to be able to successfully fake an emotion. Social skills are an arms race. 50-50 is somewhat lower than I'd expected in terms of the skill of the average person, but I'd be astonished (and disconcerted) if emotional detection was at 100%. Being able to lie is just too damn useful.
- localhost3000 15y agoOnly at the mecca of social-awkwardness (MIT) could something like this be developed. Kidding aside, MIT never ceases to amaze. Boston's most valuable resource by a mile, IMHO.
- shriphani 15y agoI sometimes wonder how lucky the residents of Cambridge, MA are. MIT AND HARVARD... man that is some concentration of intelligence.
- danielharan 15y agoI stayed in Cambridge a few days ago, half way between MIT and Harvard - and a mile away from a chocolate factory. Center of the fucking universe!
- jamesbkel 15y agoTaza chocolate, perhaps? Great stuff.
- danielharan 15y agoIndeed! Well worth the detour for anyone visiting.
- clistctrl 15y agoI love having an ordinary day, maybe taking a ride on the T and overhearing a conversation about quantum mechanics or cryptology. Cambridge really does have a unique culture.
- api 15y agoI lived there for five years, and recently moved away. Plus: highest concentration of intelligence on the Eastern seaboard. It's pretty spectacular. Minus: Warning: what follows is my own opinion based on my own experience, and YMMV, but: Coldness. People don't really connect. They don't really have friends. They don't "hang out," or if they do the conversations are either technical or about the weather. Try to talk to someone about anything emotional, or far out, or speculative, or... anything other than brainy topics or the weather... and you're very, very weird and people look at you funny and go back to the weather. For the first two years I lived there I thought it was me. Then I had this friend who lived there... total social butterfly, way more than me. After he'd lived there for five years, he had more friends in New York than in Boston. He moved to New York. I went and visited him and after being there for three months he had like twenty friends. The entire Boston area is cold and anti-social, especially the MIT/Harvard nexus. Somehow I don't think the specs are going to help, because I don't think it has anything to do with social ability. I got the distinct impression that being friendly was considered a mark of low social class.
- klausjensen 15y agoI want this for poker...
- kmfrk 15y agoIf this weren't amazing enough, one of the inventors is named Picard. Is it possible for this to get cooler?
- walrus 15y agoWhat happens when you swap the red and green lights?
- kenjackson 15y agoMy first thought for this was use for TSA or other types of security. Another place might be law enforcement interrogations during investigations.
- mw63214 15y agohttp://www.affectiva.com/q-sensor/ http://www.affectiva.com/q-sensor/ like fitbit, but for emotion. Imagine the ecosystem-explosion given access to a decent API.
- zmanian 15y agoIt always seems to take companies that originate from the MIT media lab a long time to get from cool demo to something hackers/the general public can play with. It can't get here fast enough in my opinion.
- exch 15y agoBeing a certified autist with the additional bonus of having very bad eyesight, I can't stress enough how important and useful developments like these can be. I am extremely poor at having face to face conversations. Mostly because any kind of body language completely escapes me. This has caused numerous situations of miss-communication and generally makes any kind of meaningful interaction with a human being unreliable at best. Having access to an aid like this will certainly help improve matters for me and anyone trying to have a conversation with me.
- jdunck 15y agoConsider reading these: http://www.amazon.com/What-Every-BODY-Saying-Speed-Reading/dp/0061438294/ http://www.amazon.com/What-Every-BODY-Saying-Speed-Reading/d... http://www.amazon.com/Definitive-Book-Body-Language/dp/0553804723/ http://www.amazon.com/Definitive-Book-Body-Language/dp/05538...
- exch 15y agoInteresting. I'll see if these can be useful to me.
- sayemm 15y agoThe first book looks really interesting, thanks for sharing. I'm also a huge fan of "Caro's Book of Poker Tells" - http://www.amazon.com/Caros-Book-Poker-Tells-Mike/dp/1580420826/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1309850878&sr=1-1 http://www.amazon.com/Caros-Book-Poker-Tells-Mike/dp/1580420... Poker, I find, is a great way to train yourself to read people and their emotions.
- gubatron 15y agoThis + Google recording every hangout video conversation to create a huge training data set... damn
- wiradikusuma 15y agoI think this should be mandatory gadget for going to clubs (meeting opposite sex). Assuming it works in low light.