8 Ways Your Computer Can Respond to Your Mood

Computers can't truly be intuitive until they understand how you feel and not just how you act. With new 3D scanning technologies and depth cameras coming soon from Intel, accurate emotion tracking—the ability to determine your mood just by reading your facial expressions—will soon become a reality. Here are a few ways we imagine personal computing is finally about to get personal.

1. Improve Search Results

No matter how good search engines are at guessing, they still can’t take into account your true reactions beyond whether or not you clicked on a link. Emotion detection, which Intel® RealSense™ technology will make possible by tracking 78 different points on the user’s face, will help them learn what you want and don’t want, making each search a tailored experience that will save time and improve results.

2. Make Educational Programs More Engaging

When software gains the ability to read and understand what a student is feeling, it will open up whole new worlds of possibilities. Frustration and enjoyment will be tracked to comfortably and effectively guide someone through a lesson plan without coddling or pushing too far.

3. Provide Accurate Content Suggestions

When your computer knows what you enjoy, it will be able to help you find more of what you love. It’s that simple. Podcasts, movies, or books that bring you joy will be noted and catalogued, along with similar suggestions that will keep you entertained. That will mean no more staring at an empty search bar when you’re looking for something to listen to, watch, or read.

4. Personalize Your Exercise Plan

Current exercise apps and sites rely on your subjective input and the occasional stats from step counters or heart-rate monitors. They don’t take into account how you actually feel, and that’s where emotion tracking is poised to make your workouts smarter. Your reactions to new workouts will be taken into account to help build you a strenuous yet safe plan that will get results.

5. Create Better Video Games

Even with incredibly realistic graphics and responsive gameplay, video games still only know how to respond to the decisions you make via controller or gesture. With emotion tracking, games will be able to react to your facial expression to become a truly immersive experience. As games become more adept at reading gamers’ emotions, they will also be able to change difficulty settings automatically based on the look of frustration or boredom on your face.

6. Customized Online Shopping Experiences

Similarly, emotion-tracking technology will someday help your device keep track of what you like and don’t like as you shop online. Simply browsing will turn your device into something more personal than a personal shopper, resulting in lists of terrific products you had no idea existed (or that you wanted).

7. Prevent Rash Emails

We’ve all been there: Writing an email while you’re upset, hitting send, and immediately regretting it. Soon, your computer may be able to save you from yourself. With emotion tracking, your computer will know if your head isn’t in the right place and will be able to kindly ask if you really want to send your boss that note at 2 a.m.

8. Expand Culinary Horizons

Don’t get stuck cooking or ordering the same food over and over again. By reading your reactions, emotion tracking will give your device the ability to determine what flavors you enjoy and compile new recipes or lists of restaurants for you to try. Bon appetit!

Intel RealSense 3D camera will bring human-like senses to your PCs so that you can interact with technology in a natural and immersive way. Learn more here.