The latest smart wearables tech can determine the tone of a conversation and the speaker’s mood.
There are now new wearable technology devices such as smartwatches that can do what mood rings never could. Instead of “sensing” your mood through the temperature of your finger, these devices use several sensors to determine the mood of a conversation.
The wearable tech can use vitals and speech patterns to predict the tone of an ongoing conversation.
In this way, the new wearable technology can tell if a conversation is happy, neutral or sad. This is considered to be a form of wearable artificial intelligence (AI). Researchers unveiled the technology at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and Institute of Medical Engineering and Science.
The tech works by sensing certain factors from the wearable device wearer. As the person speaks, the tech conducts an analysis on text transcriptions, audio, and a number of physiological signals. The purpose is to determine the general tone of the speech. The researchers claim that the technology is 83 percent accurate.
One component of the new wearable technology research involved the use of Samsung Simbands.
Subjects wore the device, which measured their blood pressure, movement, blood flow, heart rate and body temperature. It also analyzed text transcripts and audio data. This allowed the device to analyze the pitch, tone, energy and vocabulary of the wearer.
The research team created algorithms based on data collected from over 30 different conversations. Sad stories were linked with monotonous vocal tones and long pauses, among other forms of feedback. They were also linked with an increase in cardiovascular activity and fidgeting. Happier stories were connected with varied speech patterns and higher energy, said the MIT researchers.
As a result the researchers believe that a conversation’s emotional tone can be determined in real time. They will now use the new wearable technology on a larger scale and in a real world environment. It may involve the use of commercial devices such as the Apple Watch. The goal is to improve the accuracy of the tech in a more realistic scenario and with the types of wearables that are already readily available.
