Microsoft Research Adds 'Mood Detection' To Smartphones 110
angry tapir writes "Researchers at Microsoft Research have produced a prototype software system that can be used on smartphones to infer a user's mood. The 'MoodScope' system produced by researchers uses smartphone usage patterns to determine whether someone is happy, calm, excited, bored or stressed and could potentially add a new dimension to to mobile apps (as well as, as the researchers note, open up a Pandora's Box of privacy issues). The researchers created a low-power background service for iPhones and Android handsets that (with training) can offer reasonable detection of mood and offers and API that app developers could hook into."
Advertising (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Advertising (Score:5, Funny)
Endless loop.
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Also the title of a Van Halen album, which is the reason the meaning became widely known.
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Nope. When you see lots of ads, you will turn sad.
That's basically how it works.
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No, when you're sad, the NSA will have cause to spy on you.
Or angry.
Coming soon courtesy of MADD (Score:2)
Get out of my personal space Microsoft (Score:5, Insightful)
Dear Microsoft, I don't want my phone to know what I eat for breakfast, how I'm feeling or how I choose to spend my time. I just need it to make phone calls and check my email. That's it. That's all.
Can you please stop being such a creepy digital stalker? It's gone well past disturbing at this point.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re: Get out of my personal space Microsoft (Score:1)
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The return of Clippy: "You look like you are in a bad mood. Would you like me to help you with that?"
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Then maybe you should avoid buying a phone that includes such features.
+4 Insightful?? Really??
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You mean you don't want your phone to snitch to your boss and tell him that you're not sufficiently grateful to have a job?
I can't wait until they get the Holy Grail and your Kinect can be used to tell if you're telling the truth, or if your discontent makes you unfit for the workplace.
Snitchware is the next killer app for the workplace. For law enforcement, too. We know that tyrants have used "security" as an excuse before, but this ma
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Dear Microsoft, I don't want my phone to know what I eat for breakfast, how I'm feeling or how I choose to spend my time. I just need it to make phone calls and check my email. That's it. That's all.
Can you please stop being such a creepy digital stalker? It's gone well past disturbing at this point.
Welcome! To the Microsoft Help Line. All of our agents are currently busy helping other customers. Please stay on the line. Your call is VERY important to us! Oh dear...
This is moronic. (Score:1)
Nothing else left to say.
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Hmmm (Score:4, Insightful)
I currently own both an iPad and and Nexus tablet ... and if Microsoft thinks I'd be willing to install any of their shit on them, they're sadly mistaken.
WTF would I want my phone to know anything about my mood for? And why should I trust Microsoft with the data? They'll just roll over and hand it to the NSA anyway.
Microsoft Research has specialized in making shit nobody has wanted for years. Pity they couldn't focus on making products people actually want.
Re:Hmmm (Score:5, Informative)
Oh, it's not blind, I assure you.
Microsoft drove me to Linux in the early 90's by producing a crap operating system.
I've got an XBox 360 and I run Vista at home (yes, really, and I actually like it), I'm not some knee-jerk Microsoft hater -- I hate them on reasoned principle, and I don't trust them more than I need to. But I do own and use some of their products.
But, again I ask, WTF would I want my phone to know my mood for, and why would I trust Microsoft with the information? Should I be willing to provide even more personal information to make them money and for them to hand over to the first government agency who asks?
I stand by my assertion that Microsoft Research is a big gaping money pit that spends billions every year on stuff people don't want -- how much has been spent on the Microsoft Home of the Future?
I'm sure they'll incorporate it into the new XBone so they can report back to the mothership -- but I sure as heck wouldn't voluntarily install this. I can see no benefit whatsoever in having my phone know if I'm in a bad mood. It just sounds like fetishizing technology.
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Well, you may not like Apple much longer either: http://www.macrumors.com/2013/06/25/new-apis-in-ios-7-allow-developers-to-detect-blinking-and-smiling-in-photos/ [macrumors.com]
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Absolutely not, which is why Google Analytics and other such crap is blocked at my firewall or my browser. At every step I block as much information getting to them as possible
I don't trust any multinational company, but I also know I'm not going to live in a cave either.
Mood detection was to be added to phone trees (Score:2)
and you would be connected to a person if it detected you were angry. What happened to that? I get angry when I need to talk to a person and the phone tree doesn't offer that option, but I have never been connected to a person as a result. That's what I want, when you detect I am swearing, connect me to a person damnit!
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If a phone had this option, I'd hack it so it would always read "PISSED"
If your phone is running windows 8 you probably won't need to hack it.
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I guess you're right, I wouldn't want that job. So I guess I will just have to accept the fact that when companies want to save money and thus don't want to take your call, they won't.
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Most likely, everyone figured out that they could yell and swear and raise holy hell and finally get a human being on the line; and since nobody wants to talk to those stupid computers[1], they started yelling and swearing and raising holy hell and getting through to a human being. And we can't have that, now, can we?
[1] Hey, you out there! Mr. Customer "Service" Guy, where "service" is the way that a hog services a sow! (Not necessarily the parent to this post, of course.) NOBODY WANTS TO TALK TO THOSE
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Not even CLOSE to a troll.
Microsoft shills out in force on slashdot...
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come on now, its a reasonable application of tech.
If I may...
if (user_sex==male)
$mood = "HORNY"
else $mood=$mgic8ball(rnd)
echo "User is having trouble with Microsoft product and is FUCKING PISSED!! and" $mood
Also if it can detect other people's mood... i can finally know when to ask my wife certain questions
Obvious... (Score:2)
... I bet it defaults to 'pretty angry' and 'fucking windows' moods.
Smoke and Mirrors (Score:4, Informative)
GPS? (Score:2)
Windows phone??? (Score:3)
They don't make a version for their own phone OS?
Re:Windows phone??? (Score:4, Interesting)
They don't make a version for their own phone OS?
Because hardly anyone buys phones with their phone OS. True story... not a troll:
I have a friend who has been anti-smartphone for years. She absolutely refused to buy a smartphone because she knew she'd end up playing with it all the time. Every time her cheap "dumb" phone died, she'd go get another cheap dumb phone. A couple months ago she told me she got a Lumia. I was shocked. She said she only got it because the salesperson was offering it for free because they weren't selling. That and he said it was so bad she figured she wouldn't get sucked into playing with it. Her review after a few weeks: "It's pretty, but I hate using it. Which is exactly what I wanted." Reminds me of Domino in Thunderball (the novel), telling the tobacconist she wants a carton of cigarettes that is so terrible it will make her stop smoking.
I'm not saying no one uses Windows phones. There are people who have them specifically because they hate them and they were free.
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Wow, that's technology masochism ... do these people also wear enormous butt plugs and itchy clothes?
I'm afraid I don't follow the logic behind something you hate but that was free ... ghonorea is free too.
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I'm afraid I don't follow the logic behind something you hate but that was free ... ghonorea is free too.
So, you've been monitoring my breeding program [wikipedia.org] (paragraph 3) have you?
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That's funny because I have a Lumia 920, and I love it. I had an Android phone before and it was a complete mess of an interface. And there are more apps than on windows phone, but 90% of them are pure crap.
I hate windows 8 with a passion, but the metro interface on a touch phone is very good.
The Lumia is fast, reliable, has a better screen than the iphone, and the camera is great. The navigation and maps are fantastic, I have access to maps for almost every country of the world, and I can choose to downloa
The New Clippy (Score:2)
Microsoft's version of Seri.
We're sorry, (Score:2)
Don't get too excited. (Score:2)
Datamining (Score:2)
Missing something? (Score:5, Funny)
The researchers created a low-power background service for iPhones and Android handsets
I guess they had to drop the Windows phone variant, as the moods only varied between 'disappointed' and 'highly annoyed'.
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The researchers created a low-power background service for iPhones and Android handsets
I guess they had to drop the Windows phone variant, as the moods only varied between 'disappointed' and 'highly annoyed'.
maybe it just wasn't worth the effort for such a small niche market.
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Yes, as a WP user, I find it comforting to know even MS research does not believe it to be something worth using.. :)
Bleh (Score:2)
Accuracy (Score:2)
From Article:
Using a "hybrid" model that incorporated data from other users, after 10 days 72 per cent accuracy could be achieved.
So I'm reading this as "The new mood detection system is about as accurate as the Human 'reading of minds' or search engine optimization."
Windows 11^H^HMood (Score:2)
Windows 10 is flopping. Surface is too expensive. MS Bob [wikipedia.org] didn't turn out so well.
This will sell to the tune of billions. Fer Sher.
/snark
Source of Sadness (Score:1)
Android? iOS? (Score:2)
Subtle Difference (Score:1)
I can see a subtle difference in my expectations, depending on my mood.
When I'm in a good mood, I just want my smart phone to do what I tell it to do.
When I'm in a bad mood, my phone damn well better do exactly what I tell it to do, if it knows what's good for it.
Ob Monty Python (Score:2)
Consumer: I feel happy! I feel happy!
Windows Phone: You're not fooling anyone you know.
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you see, they are working on a shielding system which when activated in flight...
They will probably call it 'Airplane mode', to reduce confusion.
... deploying the protection shield
What would a Windows phone use as a protection shield? A fake Android start-up screen?
A prediction (Score:1)
Leaked source code (Score:3)
public enum Moods
{
FeckedOffWithWindows,
WishingTheydBoughtAnIPhone,
WishingTheydBoughtAnAndroid,
}
Should work as designed (Score:1)
We all know how this'll come out... (Score:2)
It'll be all sorts of weird colors for a few months, and then it'll turn black and stay that way.
Simple on a Windows Phone (Score:2)
The 'MoodScope' system produced by researchers uses smartphone usage patterns to determine whether someone is happy, calm, excited, bored or stressed ...
This should be easy to implement on a Windows Phone because whenever I use a Microsoft product, I generally end up "angry". To be fair, I had the same emotional result when I tried using Unity...
BBecause I want M$ to have a record of my moods (Score:2)
Oh hell yeah sign me up I want M$ to have a detailed records of my moods over a span of years so it can
1) be used against me in a court of law somehow (are you prone to anger? are you moody ? Mr. Maykabuck , are you an expert in mood disorders and what can you tell us about the defendant from this record? )
2) be used to deny me a job, without me ever knowing !
3) used to compromise me in some other way I am not creative enough to think of..
Naww.. what am I worry about....M$ would never do that...
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Oh hell yeah sign me up I want M$ to have a detailed records of my moods over a span of years so it can
1) be used against me in a court of law somehow (are you prone to anger? are you moody ? Mr. Maykabuck , are you an expert in mood disorders and what can you tell us about the defendant from this record? )
2) be used to deny me a job, without me ever knowing !
3) used to compromise me in some other way I am not creative enough to think of..
Naww.. what am I worry about....M$ would never do that....
You are right M$ would never do it, but the Government who has direct access to their data would. Or even better, whom ever M$ decides to sell the data to.
Tracking and diagnose (Score:2)