EQ-Radio: a system for determining human emotions using a wireless signal

Finding out what the other person is feeling at the moment can be extremely difficult. More or less accurately determine the mood of the interlocutor, if he tries to hide emotions, only a professional psychologist or a person with extensive communication experience can. And even in this case, the probability of error is high. There are still different kinds of tests, but working with them requires both time and the consent of another person.



Now there is another way, fast and efficient. Scientists from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT) have developed a device that can detect a person's emotions using a wireless signal. Heartbeat, respiratory rate and some other processes occurring in the human body are analyzed. After that, the computer system analyzes all the data and indicates what emotions a person is experiencing.



“Our work proves that wireless signals can contain information about a person’s mood, capturing the smallest changes that are invisible to the naked eye,” says project manager Dina Katabi. "We believe that our results can be the cornerstone of future technologies that can determine depression, despair, and other negative human emotions."

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The developers called their device EQ-Radio. According to them, the accuracy of the device is 87%. The device sends wireless signals that are reflected from the human body and captured by the system again. Reflected radio waves are analyzed by specialized software developed specifically for this project. The algorithm picks up the slightest change in a person's heartbeat. Then the obtained data is compared with the information loaded into the system, and a certain conclusion is made.



The above accuracy is achieved if the device works with the test for a long time. For example, it may be an analysis of a person’s emotions while watching five two-minute videos. If you try to determine the mood of a person immediately, without passing the preparatory tests, the accuracy is reduced to 70%.



So far, the device can determine only a few emotions, including joy, anger, sadness, satisfaction.



“Knowing a number of features of a person’s pulse in various emotional states, we can easily analyze the data and determine the person’s current emotions,” said project participant Mingmin Ziao.



To test the performance of their system, developers first tested it for themselves. They turned on various music or watched videos that had a strong emotional effect, and then turned on EQ-Radio.



The challenge was to “teach” the emotional tester to distinguish between the heartbeat and the breathing movements of a person. Now EQ-Radio without problems distinguishes the various processes occurring in the body. The creators of the system say that EQ-Radio determines the time of opening and closing the valves of the ventricles of the heart. Due to this, changes in the heartbeat can be determined very accurately (the probability of an error is only 0.3%). And already from these data the system builds a picture of the emotional state of a person.



It is possible to determine not only emotions, EQ-Radio should be used to monitor human health. “We can identify human diseases such as arrhythmia, as well as some other problems,” said Fadel Adib, another member of the EQ-Radio project team.



And for this you can not use the traditional methods of the survey, all the necessary measurements can be carried out "by air". Of course, at first the device should be considered as an auxiliary, and not the main tool. But over time, scientists promise to modify EQ-Radio so that all this can be used as a complete diagnostic system.







In addition to doctors, EQ-Radio can be useful to filmmakers or marketers. Working with EQ-Radio, you can determine what kind of emotional influence a person has on a movie or some product. Observation is supposed to be conducted in real time - the system works very quickly.

Is the technique unique?

As far as we know, no one has yet tried to determine the mood of a person by the distortion of the wireless signal. There are projects that allow to determine the emotions of people by the expression of their faces (even micromovements of facial muscles are captured). Such a project, which is called “Emotion API” , was developed by Microsoft Corporation.



Emotion API can determine the mood quite accurately, but, as already mentioned, a visual contact of the system with the subject is required. And in this case, the absence of emotions, neutral mood, is determined more easily than all other feelings. In the case of working with EQ-Radio, visual contact is not required, and the system can determine a wide range of emotions without any special problems.



Scientists will conduct a detailed presentation of the results of their work at the MobiCom ( International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking ) conference.