Social X-ray glasses let you read minds
Here’s some good news for those who are nervous to go on their first date or face an interview — you can now sport a pair of “social X-ray” glasses that can let you know exactly what another person is thinking.
Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s media lab, who are making the glasses, say the specs can also tell people when they should stop talking.
The glasses have a built-in camera which monitors the other person’s facial expressions and matches them up with 24 known features which convey emotions. It will then tell the individual via an earpiece and lights on the glasses what their date is thinking, the Daily Mail reported.
In a traffic light-style system, a red light means negative, amber means they are moderately interested and green means your date is happy. The researchers say that wearing them during a conversation with another person is like having an “extra sense” that they are bored or losing interest. The eyewear was developed for people suffering from autism who have genuine difficulties interacting with others, but now the team behind it has seen wider applications.
The prototype works thanks to a camera the size of a grain of rice which is put into the glasses frame and connected via a wire to a small computer which can be attached to the user’s body.
The camera monitors how long and how often 24 “feature points” appear on the subject’s face which are then analysed by software developed by the MIT team. This data is then compared with a bank of expressions and the computer tells the wearer what is going on via the earpiece and the traffic light system. So far, the glasses are still a work in progress and have been accurate just 64 per cent of the time.
MIT electrical engineer Rosalind Picard told the New Scientist she hopes to one day create a pair of “augmented-reality glasses” which would overlay the information onto the lens so the user could see exactly how their date felt.
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