Measuring emotion has always been complicated, as the question must be asked how do you quantify something with no apparent mass, length or time? However a new device designed by Affectiva called the Q Sensor has been able to achieve this. It does so by detecting skin conductance (top line of the graph), which is a measure related to stress, excitement, and activity. To help interpret the meaning of these changes in conductance, the device also measures skin temperature (middle line) and movement (bottom lines). By assessing these three components the device is able to track a person's emotional levels. Practically its very simple, the band is worn around the wrist and the data transferred to a computer via a usb cable. There are however a few flaws to the device, for instance it has no possible way of determining what emotion is being felt by the user. They simply have to remember what they were doing at that time and assume what caused the change.
This device was designed not just for everyday people, but for those who are disabled and therefore can not expresses their emotions, such as children with autism. This is the reason why I like this device, because it has a purpose. The design team has not just rehashed the same product with a different colour, they have thought about what is missing in a certain field and have created a device that will have a vast effect on a number of lives.
James Meikle
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Nice James. I thought it was like a mood ring thing but its pretty amazing as to what it really does!
ReplyDeleteChris K