System Measures Stress In Emergency Callers' Voice 238
cylonlover writes "Chances are that if you're calling 9-1-1 (or 9-9-9, or whatever it is where you are), you're not likely to tell the operator that your case isn't all that urgent, and that it can wait. The problem is, sometimes emergency dispatch centers are so overloaded with callers – all of them stating that they need assistance right now – that some sort of system is required in order to determine who should get help first. Dutch researchers claim to have developed just such a system, which analyzes callers' voices to determine how stressed-out they are."
Re:Nice, but... (Score:5, Interesting)
Well, Slashdot being comprised of a large number of cynical, jaded people who have worked in engineering related jobs ... we look for the ways this will go horribly wrong first, and then decide if those outweigh the planned benefits. If your false-positive/false-negative rate is too high, your system becomes junk.
This reminds me a lot of polygraphs ... voice-stress analysis might be a lot smarter than we expect it to be ... but, there's a reason why polygraphs aren't admissible in many places in court. It's vague and subjective in a lot of cases. As a result, associated technology isn't always readily trusted by some of us.
Re:Stress != Urgency (Score:4, Interesting)
You know, that'd be faster than any 911 call I've made recently....
911 op: "911, what's your emergency?" ...there! So, I'm going to connect you with the local police department."
Me: "A half-ton truck just rear-ended an ammonia trailer, flipped over into the ditch and the occupant is bleeding profusely. I can't remove him from the vehicle. My location is Road 19W on the highway, just east of the exit to (whatever town it was)."
911 op: "Okie, let me just type that in here for a sec... (pause)
Cue the introductions, me explaining the whole bloody thing again, giving the location again, followed by giving directions because they don't understand the addressing system that was actually put in place to make it easier for emergency responders to find places in just such a situation.
I miss the gold old days when calling 911 meant you were talking to someone was located in the general area of the city and surrounding roads, not someone in a call center on the other end of the country.