No need for emotional intelligence anymore: An app called Moodies will just tell you how you feel, reports the Wall Street Journal. The voice-recognition app uses some magic algorithm (presumably the same one used by dollar-store mood rings) to analyze patterns in pitch, timing, volume, pauses, and energy. Feeling confused about feelings? Speak into a phone's mike and the app will produce an emotional state for you. And then it will assign a fun emoticon to express said state with your friends on Facebook or Twitter.
That is just the first in a cache of digital mood rings that are being developed. While Moodies is all fun and games, others are being developed for horrible, dystopian-sounding things like "honesty maintenance" for human-resource executives (try lying about that sick day now) and perhaps for manipulative marketing purposes.
Right now the apps are simple, but just think of the potential! One day you will be able to finally determine when your passive-aggressive friend is angry at you, or get a read on your boss's emotional state before asking to take vacation days. But until the developments advance enough for that to happen, and as long as the app can tell the difference between angry and hangry, the world will be a better place.
Read more posts by Allison P Davis
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emotions
,science
,technology
,emotional artificial intelligence
,feeling feelings