Researchers at Japan’s Rekimoto Lab have created a concept cellphone handset which is designed to allow the user to transmit emotions as well as plain old speech.
The AffectPhone device, which currently exists only as a lab-based prototype based around an iPhone, wraps a pair of galvanic skin response sensors – as found in FBI-style lie detectors – on the side of the handset. When the user’s fingertips make contact with the sensors, a crude idea of the emotional state of the user can be gathered from the electrical conductivity of their user’s skin – whether they are excited, scared, sad, happy, and so forth.
While the sensors aren’t up to the task of distinguishing between different types of emotions, they should do an adequate job of detecting gross differences in the user’s emotional state- in particular, the difference between a person when they are calm and when they are under stress, which is why the galvanic skin response sensors are so useful in lie detectors.
Once the readings are taken, the information is transmitted through the airwaves – along with the voice part of the conversation – to the receiving handset, and from there a Peltier module takes over. Often found in extreme cooling systems, Peltier modules are neat electrical devices that take a current and create a ‘hot’ side and a ‘cool’ side, transferring heat from one side to the other and reversing which side is which depending on the polarity of the electric current. In this particular application, however, they are designed to either cool or heat the users’ hands – giving immediate feedback as to the emotional state of the other participant in the call.
With a cool sensation representing a calm emotional state and a hot sensation representing increasing stress levels, the system is capable of giving a clearer indication of what is going through the participants’ minds than a simple voice – or even video – call.
Although the current implementation of the device is somewhat cumbersome – and does make your nice slim iPhone significantly less portable – the AffectPhone technology could well find its way into the handsets of the future, extending the feeling of participation in the same way as video calling has, and perhaps making it significantly harder to call in ‘sick’ to work the next time you’re feeling like a lazy day.
A video of the device in action – which is, unfortunately for Anglophones, in Japanese – can be found over on Gizmodo, and if you’re after more details – in English this time – the group behind the technology has released a PDF whitepaper.
