Telling how keen your date is with an app
UC technology can track conversational engagement
The Daily Mail highlighted a University of Cincinnati research project that uses technology to tell if your date is into you.
UC College of Engineering and Applied Science trained a computer to use data from wearable technology that measures respiration, heart rates and perspiration to identify the type of conversation two people were having based on their physiological responses alone.
Researchers studied a phenomenon in which people’s heart rates, respiration and other autonomic nervous system responses become synchronized when they talk or collaborate. Known as physiological synchrony, this effect is stronger when two people engage deeply in a conversation or cooperate closely on a task.
“Physiological synchrony shows up even when people are talking over Zoom,” said study co-author Vesna Novak, an associate professor of electrical engineering in UC’s College of Engineering and Applied Science.
In experiments with human participants, the computer was able to differentiate four different conversation scenarios with as much as 75% accuracy. The study is one of the first of its kind to train artificial intelligence how to recognize aspects of a conversation based on the participants’ physiology alone.
The study was published in the journal IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing.
Lead author and UC doctoral student Iman Chatterjee said a computer could give you honest feedback about your date — or yourself.
“The computer could tell if you’re a bore,” Chatterjee said.
Featured image at top: UC researchers are deveoping an app that can tell if your date is engaging with you based on your conversation alone. Illustration/Kerry Overstake/UC Digital + User Experience
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