The current generation of wearables can do many things from sensing that you have fallen off to sleep and automatically activating the robo vac to clean the living room, to also detecting that you are in a car crash and summoning emergency services while you are still unconscious.
But new research has pointed out that wearables might go one step further and even detect human emotions.
A team of experts from the Tokyo Metropolitan University recently published a paper detailing how they measured skin conductance to identify emotions, reported Digital Trends.
They analysed changes in skin conductance response, which arises from different kinds of emotional experiences.
Volunteers were made to watch videos that were capable of eliciting strong emotions predominantly across three kinds of responses: fear, family-bonding emotions, and fun.
“When people feel different things, the electrical properties of their skin change drastically due to perspiration, with signals showing up within one to three seconds of the original stimulus,” said the team. The variations in skin conductance were measured using probes attached to their fingers.
At the end of the tests, the researchers found that fear was the strongest emotional response, while feelings associated with family bonding rose gradually and delivered a combination of joy and sadness.
The researchers noted that the skin conductance data could prove useful in making “statistically significant predictions of whether a subject was experiencing fear or feeling the warmth of a family bond.”
Some current wearables already detect data related to what was being studied in the experiment. For example, the Fitbit Sense smartwatch or the Charge 5 and 6 bands are equipped with an electrodermal activity (EDA) sensor.
The sensor measures the “electrical changes in the sweat level of your skin,” which is a reflection of the body’s response to certain stress agents. The sweat level on the skin changes the skin conductance, and it is tied to the sympathetic nervous system. In the case of the Fitbit, the EDA sensor on its wearables senses high stress.
“Skin conductance is a measure of emotional arousal and shows changes in the electrical properties of individuals’ skin owing to sweating associated with arousal, such as fear, surprise, and pleasure,” explains the research paper.
“Combined with other signals, the team believe [sic] we are one step closer to devices knowing how we are feeling, with scope for a better understanding of human emotions,” says the research release.
