Detecting Emotions

But now, a new computer program can recognize people's emotions based on how they type, paving the way for computers that could one day be smarter than humans — a concept called "the singularity." In a new study, researchers asked a small group of people to type a block of sample text, and then analyzed the keystrokes and characteristics to see if they could identify any of seven different emotional states: joy, fear, anger, sadness, disgust, shame or guilt. The emotions that the program recognized with the greatest degree of accuracy were joy (87 percent of the time) and anger (81 percent of the time). Still, the new system could be a valuable tool for online counseling sessions such as those over internet phone services. For example, in some cultures where online counseling is particularly popular, psychiatrists may be able to estimate a patient's internal state even without the person verbally articulating it them.