Artificial intelligence can interact with us at different levels, there are robots that can react to our mood by our voice or our facial expression, but knowing what we feel only through touch seems impossible. It just seems.
This is demonstrated by a new study, in which scientists from Tokyo Metropolitan University, uused skin conductance (a measure of how well the skin conducts electricity) to assess emotions of 33 participants who were shown emotion-evoking videos.
Because skin conductance changes when you sweat, the authors, led by Yuki Kosuge, found a correlation between these measurements and videos that elicited feelings of fear, surprise, and “family bonding emotions,” making skin conductance is an accurate method to detect changes in emotions in real time.
When this measure is used in conjunction with other physiological signals, such as monitoring heart rate and brain activity, skin conductance could play a central role in the development of emotionally intelligent devices and servicesnotes Kosuge’s team in the study.
“To date, few studies have examined how the dynamics of skin conductance responses differ between emotions, despite high responsiveness being a key characteristic of skin conductance,” the study states. We hope that our results will contribute to the development of technologies that can be used to accurately estimate emotions.when combined with other physiological signals.”
Although the study did not specifically explore the integration of technology with robotics, systems that can respond to human emotions have several promising applications. These could include smart devices that play relaxing music when you’re stressed or streaming platforms that adapt content recommendations to your mood.
However, to be effective, these devices must detect and interpret emotions accurately. In the article, the scientists noted that the Typical emotion detection technologies are based on facial recognition and speech analysis. Not only do these technologies tend to be unreliable, particularly when video and audio signals are unclear, but they also carry inherent privacy concerns.
It is in this scenario that skin conductance can offer a solution. When humans We experience an emotional reaction, your sweat glands are activated, which changes the electrical properties of the skin. These changes occur within one to three seconds, providing a very quick response about a person’s emotional state.
For the study, scientists at Tokyo Metropolitan University placed probes on the fingers of 33 participants and showed them a variety of emotionally charged videos, including scenes from horror movies, comedy shorts and videos of family gatherings. Kosuge’s team measured how quickly participants’ skin conductance peaked and how long it took to return to normal.
The study revealed different patterns for different emotions. Fear responses lasted the longest, which the scientists explained was probably an evolutionary trait that keeps humans alert to danger. Family bonding emotions, described as a mix of happiness and sadness, led to slower responses, which they said could be because the two feelings interfered with each other.
Humor triggered the quickest reactions, but they also faded just as quickly. The reason for this was not immediately clear, but the scientists noted that “the literature on the dynamics of skin conductance caused by mood and fear” is quite sparse.
Although the method is not perfect, the combination of skin conductance with other physiological signals (such as heart rate, electromyography and brain activity) could improve the precision of the technique.
“There is a growing demand for techniques to estimate the subjective experiences of individuals based on their physiological signals to provide them with emotionally evocative services – the study concludes -. Therefore, further exploration of these physiological signals in this study, particularly skin conductance responses, “can advance emotion recognition techniques”.