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AI Technology

Emotionally Aware Apps That Respond To Feelings Are On the Horizon 49

Posted by samzenpus from the turn-that-frown-upside-down dept.
bigwophh writes: Machine learning has helped a multitude of different technologies become a reality, including emotion-detection. Most examples to date have been rather simple, such as being able to detect a smile or a frown. But with today's super-fast computers, and even mobile devices, we're now able to detect emotion with far greater accuracy and nuance. Facial recognition expert Rana el Kaliouby recently gave a talk at TED to highlight just how accurate emotion-detection has become, and depending on your perspective, the result is either amazing, or downright scary. To accurately detect someone's emotion, Rana's software detects eight different factors, which include frowning, showing disgust, engaged, and raised eyebrows, among other things. Through research with this software, a couple of interesting factoids are revealed. In the United States, women are 40% more likely to smile than men. But the technology is ultimately destined for software that will detect the user's emotion and react accordingly.
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Emotionally Aware Apps That Respond To Feelings Are On the Horizon More

Emotionally Aware Apps That Respond To Feelings Are On the Horizon

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  • oh YEAH??! (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Well then, respond to THIS you APPLIANCE FROM HELL

    *flips off monitor*
    *flips off computer*
    *flips off facial recognition cam*
    *unplugs entire system from the wall*
    *goes outside to work in the garden*
    *later, sips a cold beer and falls asleep in the hammock, listening to the sound of chirping birds*

  • Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Sunday July 19, 2015 @12:58PM (#50140587)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Fake smiles. Sometimes, I'm not sure how genuine a smile is. But, I know a handful of women who can be perfectly natural, going about their work. When you spot them, they have a look of concentration, or maybe disapproval, or even a pissed off look. As soon as they see you, they light up with a big smile - like it's obligatory to smile at you. Moments later, the smile is gone, and they are back to concentrating or whatever. That crap is just scary - to me at least.

      Please, people, if the smile isn't ge

      • Clue: If you're watching a woman work and she looks up and flashes a smiles at you, you smile back. It's not at all "scary", at worst it's good manners, at best it's an invitation to approach her.

  • Technology (Score:3)

    by Curunir_wolf ( 588405 ) on Sunday July 19, 2015 @01:17PM (#50140663) Homepage Journal
    Great. All of our cutting-edge communications technology has brought use the 21st-century mood ring [wikipedia.org].

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tchdab1 ( 164848 )

      Not just a mood ring in software, but one that will emotionally abuse you.
      You thought Spam was bad, wait until your app begins pushing your buttons.

      • one that will emotionally abuse you.

        Yeah, if you're lucky.

        But with today's super-fast computers, and even mobile devices, we're now able to detect emotion with far greater accuracy and nuance. ... But the technology is ultimately destined for software that will detect the user's emotion and react accordingly.

        Great! Computers will be able to use a humanlike level of voice recognition, emotional perception, and decision-making skills and then at orders of magnitude greater than human speed, react accordingly [youtube.com].

    • And me without mod points.

      Whenever I put on a mood ring, it turned black. I have this feeling that a computer trying to read my emotions would be about as useful.

  • Not quite seeing the point (Score:5, Insightful)

    by pushing-robot ( 1037830 ) on Sunday July 19, 2015 @01:19PM (#50140669)

    Outside of a conversational AI, I don't want my software to work differently depending on what mood it thinks I'm in. For every app that would actually benefit from this I foresee a hundred 'Clippy's.

    'You seem frustrated! Let's start a tutorial of my basic features...'
    'Hey—did you know you're angry? Here's some cute kittens that are sure to cheer you up!'
    'I can see you're really upset about this. I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill, and think things over...'

  • As in, 'you seem sad: here, take a look at your Amazon wishlist. Remember, shopping makes you happy. Believe me, I know. '

  • ... or respond to these things.

    these companies keep trying to turn technology into pets. Like what i want when I buy a cellphone is a flat kitten that I can use to order pizza.

    I'm not some ignorant savage that flies in the silver sky birds and speaks with magic rocks. Enough you arrogant pricks.

    yes yes... there are some profoundly stupid people but can we agree they don't actually matter because they don't actually advance the species at all. They're cannon fodder. Make technology for the people please.

    • ...these companies keep trying to turn technology into pets...

      That wouldn't bother me much, although it would be annoying. My real concern is that these companies keep trying to turn us into technology's pets.

    • Like what i want when I buy a cellphone is a flat kitten that I can use to order pizza.

      As with all things, this is good news and bad news:

      • Bad news: roughly every 5th pizza comes with a hairball
      • Good news: bulk discounts on anchovies, feeder mice as toppings

  • Sweet! (Score:3)

    by Greyfox ( 87712 ) on Sunday July 19, 2015 @01:37PM (#50140745) Homepage Journal
    I recently determined that the problem with our ERP software is that it's not getting laid enough. Nothing makes it more difficult to concentrate on processing all those transactions than being all pent up like that. So on the minus side there's going to be more competition for Charlene in Marketing (And you KNOW the ERP software is a much smoother talker than you are) but on the plus side, we should start seeing a couple hundred thousand extra transactions per second as soon as this software gets installed!

  • When will these bullshit stories that predict things that are rather obviously not going to materialize or at least will never work well, ever stop?

    • Uhhhmmmm - maybe you're asking the wrong question, based on the wrong assumptions.

      Fact is, advertisers would love to have this kind of tech at their disposal. It's probably a safe bet that a bloc of "forward thinking" corporations are prepared to back this kind of research. Given the right combination of sensors and software, your computer can gain insight into your emotional state and your thinking that not even your spouse can get. You can bet your arse that advertising companies want that insight.

  • Great! (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Now computers can react poorly to me as well.

  • I Wonder (Score:5, Insightful)

    by WOOFYGOOFY ( 1334993 ) on Sunday July 19, 2015 @01:51PM (#50140789)

    I wonder if they'll be able to sense the level of contempt I have for them.

    Remember, these aren't "apps" as in applications you use to achieve some life goal. Like the click through TOSes that you agree to, these will be one-sided, spying malware which you can't say "no" to because on the other side will be resources society now expects you to know about or use, FB being the classic example of such malware.

    What tech companies have discovered is that the 20% of thoughtful, skeptical people in the population can be forced into submission by creating a world whose parameters and nature is defined by whatever the oblivious 80% will swallow, which is pretty much anything.

     

    • Remember, these aren't "apps" as in applications you use to achieve some life goal. Like the click through TOSes that you agree to, these will be one-sided, spying malware which you can't say "no" to because on the other side will be resources society now expects you to know about or use, FB being the classic example of such malware.

      That is one potential use for this software, as a metric collector to figure out what parts of your app are annoying to people.

  • Sirius Cybernetics Corporation (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I for one welcome Genuine People Personalities. Don't want to give the complaints department any business, do we?

  • Yet they call this woman a "Facial Recognition Expert"

    That might not be the best way to describe a person in this internet age....

    It looks like some of us are trying to "Oprah-fy the computer.

    Sorry dear lady, I'm not going to take the tape off my camera lenses either. That's a security issue.

  • You mad Bro?

    You sure look mad Bro. But seriously, all Ms. Kaliouby has proven is that a probably nervous audience member can fake out the software.

  • Angry - if you are making the user angry, figure out why and make them less angry.

    • "You seem angry. I've ordered you a free trial of a great new product, Pax [wikia.com]! This should significantly start improving your user experience right away."

  • If it starts asking if you and your wife are an effective team, you answer YES .

  • "...although you took very thorough precautions in the pod against my hearing you, I could see your lips move."
  • Auto insurance industry will be all over this technology. Install it in every customers car so they can detect car jackers. Just as soon as they can accurately distinguish orgasm faces from great pain or great relief.

  • re? Will it turn off when it detects I want to kill it?

  • The things that makes me happiest are efficiency and lack of complications. That is, I like it when I drive to work and there's no traffic and I don't hit any red lights. Or when I write code that just works with little or no revision required. I like it when things go according to plan.

    An app that does exactly what I want with little delay, crashing, or complication makes me happier, and an app that doesn't do what I want lowers my happiness. I don't want sympathy or empathy when I'm unhappy; I want th

  • If the prediction from these apps are as accurate as the predictions from Google search, I want no part of it.

  • Emotion is not broadcast by the face. This has been known for a long time. Here's a clever study that shows people attend less to the face than the body when trying to guess someone's emotion.

    http://www.npr.org/2012/11/30/... [npr.org]

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