MIT's Wearable AI Smartwatch App Serves as a “Social Coach” for People with Anxiety or Asperger’s

Smart watches are generally meant for tracking our physical activity that includes the amount of distance run, the number of calories burnt, heart rate and so on, and they provide a quantitative measure of physical health. But the new software developed by researchers at Massachusetts institute of technology (MIT) will give a measure of emotions using the Artificial Intelligence system.

A conversation between persons involve not just words but is a combination of body language, signs, look, tone and everything. On few occasions, the signals we send may not be correctly understood or may be misunderstood by the other persons. This is where the new software comes in handy and removes the uncertainty in the non-verbal communications out of the equation.

How does it work?

• Researchers used Apple iPhone 5S  to record the audio of the conversations and made each person wear a Samsung's Simband.
• They used the sim band as it is the only wearable that runs Tizen and has space for additional sensors.
• The wearable detects the tone of the conversation and every 5 seconds neural networks analyze a person's speech and vital signs.
• The algorithm then predicts the mood of conversation whether it is happy, sad or neutral with 83% accuracy

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Researchers Tuka AlHanai and Mohammad Mahdi Ghassemi has built the algorithm. Currently, the emotions detecting app is in the basic stages of development and the researchers hope that one day the app may act as social coach persons suffering from anxiety disorders or conditions like autism.

                            
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