If you're boring, it vibrates

Tiny, Tiny, burning bright . . . What immortal hand or eye Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

"I would love it if you could have a computer looking at each student in the room to tell me when 20 per cent of them were bored or confused," says Timothy Bickmore, who studies "ways in which computers can be made to engage with people's emotions" re a new device "that can pick up on people's emotions . . . being developed to help people with autism relate to those around them," reports New Scientist Technology [via White Pebble]:

A device that can pick up on people's emotions is being developed to help people with autism relate to those around them. It will alert its autistic user if the person they are talking to starts showing signs of getting bored or annoyed.

One of the problems facing people with autism is an inability to pick up on social cues. Failure to notice that they are boring or confusing their listeners can be particularly damaging, says Rana El Kaliouby of the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "It's sad because people then avoid having conversations with them."

Failure to notice that they are boring and confusing their listeners can be a problem for anyone at any time. Only this morning . . . But we digress. You don't have to agree with how "sad" it may or may not be to bore your fellow citizens to realize the boon this technology could be for politicians on both sides of the aisle, not to mention everyone who ever came down the pike. Plus, of course, it's frequently the study of our fellow human beings with brain disorders -- the man who mistook his wife for a hat comes to mind -- that  leads to understanding the workings of the presumably normal brains among us. We aren't taking sides here for obvious reasons. Here's how the device works:

The "emotional social intelligence prosthetic" device, which El Kaliouby is constructing along with MIT colleagues Rosalind Picard and Alea Teeters, consists of a camera small enough to be pinned to the side of a pair of glasses, connected to a hand-held computer running image recognition software plus software that can read the emotions these images show. If the wearer seems to be failing to engage his or her listener, the software makes the hand-held computer vibrate.

In 2004 El Kaliouby demonstrated that her software, developed with Peter Robinson at the University of Cambridge, could detect whether someone is agreeing, disagreeing, concentrating, thinking, unsure or interested, just from a few seconds of video footage. Previous computer programs have only detected the six more basic emotional states of happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise and disgust. El Kaliouby's complex states are more useful because they come up more frequently in conversation, but are also harder to detect, because they are conveyed in a sequence of movements rather than a single expression.

Her program is based on a machine-learning algorithm that she trained by showing it more than 100 8-second video clips of actors expressing particular emotions. The software picks out movements of the eyebrows, lips and nose, and tracks head movements such as tilting, nodding and shaking, which it then associates with the emotion the actor was showing. When presented with fresh video clips, the software gets people's emotions right 90 per cent of the time when the clips are of actors, and 64 per cent of the time on footage of ordinary people.

The team will present the device next week at the Body Sensor Network conference at MIT.

'Course no one ever asked us, and while we're all for scientific affirmation of common-sense conclusions, give us a break. "Movements of the eyebrows, lips and nose," not to mention "head movements such as tilting, nodding and shaking" seem like "no brainers." Yet the majority of our fellow Americans apparently never picked up on any of those things in the toe-curling "60 Minutes" moments with Bill and Hill and Chelsea through the years. Is that what comes of being totally out of touch with our instinctual inner selves? We would never, of course, but how about turning off the TV and -- we aways do -- stopping to smell the roses once in awhile?

Update: To keep in touch with the animals, who are always in touch with their inner selves, check in with the Friday Ark at Modulator.

Comments

[Teresa]

Well, much depends on why you're oblivious to the reaction of those around you. Politicians could never be classified as autistic - the reason many of them don't or won't pick up on the audience reaction is because they love hearing themselves talk - they're so focused on their own wit they tend to ignore the audience.

With autism though - you have people who literally can't process social cues. It's well proven - plus they are literal in the extreme. So unless you stood up in front of them and told them you were bored out of your skull... they would never figure it out by watching body language. (also they would be at pains to tell you that since your skull is intact - you couldn't possibly be bored out of it)

However, autistic or borderline autistic (Asperger's syndrome) people are often extremely talented at science and math - therefore the possibility of them eventually trying to express their ideas to others increases as they get farther along in the academic world.

I'm not sure that it would really work though because they are assuming that people with autism and Apserger's actually "care" if people find them boring...

[HNAV]

I enjoyed your fine post.

I remain amazed, there are Democrat partisans who still seem blind to the unethical nature of Mr. Clinton and Ms. Rodham...

After the continued slide of the DNC, since the Clintons entered the National stage, one would believe they would rethink this unhealthy relationship.

Oddly, many in that Party, seem to enjoy being dishonest, as if this is in their best interest.

It seems entirely insulting for the American Public...

[Laura Lee Donoho]

Excellent thoughts as always and I also appreciate the previous comment of HNAV.