[nredman]

Bored on the phone? Beware the Jerk-O-Meter!!!

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are developing software for cell phones that would analyze speech patterns and voice tones to rate people -- on a scale of 0 to 100 percent -- on how engaged they are in a conversation.

Anmol Madan, who led the project while he pursued a master's degree at MIT, sees the Jerk-O-Meter as a tool for improving relationships, not ending them. Or it might assist telephone sales and marketing efforts.

"Think of a situation where you could actually prevent an argument," he said. "Just having this device can make people more attentive because they know they're being monitored."

The program, which Madan said is nearing completion, uses mathematical algorithms to measure levels of stress and empathy in a person's voice. It also keeps track of how often someone is speaking.

"It's an academically proven thing," Madan said of the math behind those measurements. "There are a bunch of academic papers published about this."



we need one of these installed on the macnn servers for all you JERKS!!!


http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/ptech/0....ap/index.html

[mojo2]

Originally Posted by nredman

meh

[greenamp]

[Scandalous Ion Cannon]

meh + last weeks news.

[Kerrigan]

only a matter of time until OSX86 is ported to that phone

[DeathToWindows]

a couple of things:

1. That's running on a Sharp Zaurus 6000. Not a phone (that would be the other cool Media Lab project recently - Nathan Eagle's cell phone/GPS aggregation project).

2. I'm deeply amused. I worked with this group (as a summer intern) in 2004 and helped to prep the raw data from the subject rigs as well as being the lead tech who could debug the things. Cool to see Anmol getting some press.

[rozwado1]

Heh. Jerk-O-Meter

[turtle777]

IBCR.

-t