Devices That Know How We Really Feel

Admit it: Sometimes you just want to punch your PC, or slap your smartphone, or knock your notebook.

We all get riled by technology once in a while, with all those feeble batteries, endless updates and spinning wheels of death.

But what if our devices could see it coming? What if they could pick up the tics and tells of our brewing anger — or, for that matter, any other emotion — and respond accordingly?

It’s not as crazy as it sounds. To hear experts tell it, this is where technology is going. Researchers and companies are already starting to employ sensors that try to read and respond to our feelings.

While this sort of technology is still in its early days, the possibilities seem many. One day, your PC might sense your frustration when a program keeps crashing and politely suggest that you take a walk while it contacts tech support. Or your smartphone could sense that passions — of one sort or another — are running high and, in response, disable messaging. Or your car might discern an early case of road rage and soften the car’s lighting and stiffen its steering.

Researchers have been trying to read emotions for years by monitoring facial expressions. But a new generation of sensors can judge emotion through people’s skin and breath.

One area where this could really take off is gaming. Last month, engineers at Stanford University outfitted an Xbox game console with sensors that monitor players’ emotions and alter the game play accordingly.

Corey McCall, a doctoral candidate who oversaw the experiment, said that the modified controller he built tapped into people’s autonomic nervous system — the part of the brain that operates largely below our consciousness to control things like heart rate and breathing. By watching this control system, the sensors could tell if people were happy or sad, excited or bored.

Mr. McCall told me that to quantify emotions, his sensors measured how long it took for a slight electrical current to pass from one arm to another. “If you’re tense, it’s going to be more difficult for the current to pass through than if you’re relaxed and calm,” he explained.

In the past, the only way to get such readings was with an electroencephalogram. But EEGs must be attached to a person’s head. And, even then, they only work with a special gel — and, sometimes, only if the subject’s head is shaved. In Mr. McCall’s experiment, all it took was an innocuous sensor.

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