Robots may soon be able to detect human emotions by touching skin, reveals study

Scientists are developing robots that can detect human emotions through skin contact by measuring Skin Conductance. This method analyzes the skin's electrical conductivity, which changes in response to sweat and nerve activity, offering a potential improvement over traditional emotion detection methods like voice or facial recognition.

Gargi Chaudhry

First Published Dec 23, 2024, 5:57 PM IST | Last Updated Dec 23, 2024, 5:58 PM IST

Scientists are creating robots that can sense your emotions just by touching your skin in a society where individuals struggle to find someone who understands them and knows how they feel. Indeed! Yes, you read correctly. A new study that was published in the IEEE Access magazine claims that researchers were able to ascertain an individual's emotional state by using Skin Conductance. It is a measurement of the skin's electrical conductivity, which frequently varies in reaction to sweating and nerve activity, revealing different emotional states in people.

According to the researchers, Skin Conductance may be able to overcome the shortcomings of conventional emotion-detection methods like voice analysis or face recognition, which frequently result from subpar audio or visual settings.

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For the study, the emotional responses of 33 participants were measured by showing them emotionally evocative videos and measuring their skin conductance. The results indicated clear patterns for each emotion: humour elicited short-lived but rapid replies; family bonding feelings, a mixture of happiness and melancholy, exhibited delayed reactions; and terror elicited the longest-lasting responses, indicating an evolutionary warning mechanism.

"To date, few studies have examined how the dynamics of skin conductance responses differ among emotions, despite high responsiveness being a key feature of skin conductance," the researchers stated.

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The discovery has broad implications since it may indicate that future robots may be able to comprehend human users' emotional states through tiny physiological indicators, allowing them to empathize with them in addition to interacting with them.

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