Last but not least: The cell phone that knows what you need
Samsung has developed a smartphone prototype that recognizes the user's emotional state and is designed, for example, to prevent them from hastily sending angry Twitter messages.
To find out what mood the user is currently in, the test cell phone does not use sophisticated sensor technology, but a clever algorithm. This observes how the phone is being used. For example, it monitors the typing speed or how often the user enters certain characters and commands. The device also registers how often it is exposed to shocks. This should make it possible to recognize whether the person in front of the display is happy, sad, angry, anxious, surprised or disgusted. According to Hosub Lee from the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, the individual inputs have little to do with emotions. However, there are certain correlations between their sequences and the mental state.
Lee sees numerous possible applications. For example, an automatically dialed ringtone could signal to the person on the other end of the line in advance what mood the caller is in. Or the phone could select pieces of music to calm its own owner, or show them funny pictures when they are sad ... Only time will tell whether the empathic cell phone will prove its worth. It is conceivable that it will soon become annoying and one or other of its owners will throw it angrily on the floor. Perhaps that is the actual purpose. After all, a new device will then be bought - hopefully another one from Samsung.
