British scientists have come up with a machine that can sense 8 of the main human emotions - sadness, fear, surprise, disgust, happiness, trust, anger and premonition, writes the Daily Mail.
The machine can be connected to various devices. It is actually equipped with chips that can identify these human emotions by looking at the face. The apparatus is the work of the company Emoshape and will cost $315, say its inventors.
It is likely that the new gadget will be available in stores around Christmas time. The scientists highlight that the device can also show compassion toward man. The actual gizmo is called Emospark and is made from so-called emotional processing units (EPU).
The new device can read emotions just by looking at facial expressions - there is a built-in camera. The scientists claim that once it gathers data, the device can even find out what type of music you like and select such.
Then it will synchronize it with your smartphone and songs of your favorite genre will begin playing. The same applies for video, explain Emospark creators.
What's also interesting is that it can react to the behavior the person exhibits toward it - if the owner acts mean or nice to the device. The experts articulate that Emospark can respond to compliments and insults.
Oliver Zimmerman, who works at Emoshape, clarifies that the scientists' idea was to create a robot that looks a bit more like us humans, rather than man looking more and more like machines.
At this stage, the gadget recognizes human emotions solely thanks to the built-in camera and the expressions it sees. But scientists are convinced that soon they will be able to create a new version that will be able to read other signs as well - people's intonation for example.
The company asserted that this is the first device that can read and respond to different human emotions.
