social control, computers, exmocare, gadgets, science, technology

Emotion-Tracking Wearable Device Lets Your Boss Monitor Your Feelings

So you get a job in customer service, and your boss says your dealings with customers are going to be monitored for "quality." No, you won't be on CCTV — you'll be wearing a watch-sized device on your wrist that tracks your emotions by measuring heart rate, your location, body temperature, and skin moisture levels. This device will be sending your data via bluetooth to a central database. If you get too angry or too sleepy while dealing with a customer, your boss will be alerted with a message. Too much anger, and you might be fired. It sounds like something out of a Philip K. Dick novel, but it's actually a realistic application for a piece of technology called the BT2, released today by Exmocare.

According to the official Exmocare site:

By interpreting an information-rich, individually-tailored physiological context, we can determine the emotional state of a person wearing an Exmocare device. Emotional information, very simply, can be characterized in two dimensions.
* Arousal: How excited is the person?
* Valence: How positive is the person?

Different emotional states are revealed through patterns of these two dimensions. How? Any emotional state leads to a specific change in our body. We can detect these patterns, and to an even greater extent, differentiate between them.

Suggested uses are for medical patients who need to be monitored for health reasons. But obviously emotional monitoring extends way beyond cardiac care and blurs into the world of psychological regulation. Don't be surprised when you start seeing customer service jobs being monitored for emotional quality. Here's a picture of the monitoring window the emotional regulator gets with the BT2 device.

Notes Exmocare helpfully:

The BT2 Control Panel runs silently from your taskbar in reporter mode. In reporter mode, the software checks your physiological and emotional data for dangerous situations and sends status updates and alerts to the website automatically.
From the Evaluation Kit website, you can monitor anyone's physiological and emotional data from anywhere in the world. You can also view their full history and assign and resolve alerts.

I'm hoping to follow up on this story, and perhaps get a BT2 to test. If I get one, I'll let you know how accurately it measures my psychological state.

BT2 [Exmocare]

5:00 PM on Fri Mar 14 2008
By Annalee Newitz
2,194 views
20 comments

Comments

Grey_Area at 05:31 PM on 03/14/08
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Very creepy, especially the online evaluation feature. I look forward to your follow-up, what other practical applications do they foresee, prisons?
My boss monitors my emotional state the old-fashioned way -- by the number of staplers I bounce off his pointed little head -- HAW! Take THAT weasel-boy!

dangnabit, missed.
Oh well, TGIF everybody.
Christovir at 05:36 PM on 03/14/08
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I'm a little skeptical about the accuracy of its interpretation. While it is easy to determine general arousal, it is very difficult to gauge specific emotional states from heart rate, galvanic response, etc. Anger, surprise, and laughter can appear very similar when just looking physiological measures. I'm sure this device predicts better than chance, but I'm also sure it is incorrect often enough to make reliable interpretation and impossibility.
bjarmson at 05:43 PM on 03/14/08
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Hey, this is great. Now if they can just micro-miniaturize it and add a shock feature they can insert one into everyones brain so no one will ever have negative or antisocial/political thoughts again. "The future's so bright I gotta wear shades."
Evil Tortie's Mom at 06:12 PM on 03/14/08
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Wouldn't this discriminate against really sweaty people? Or women with hot flashes?

(Or, you know, HUMAN DIGNITY?)
gfburke at 08:12 PM on 03/14/08
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Those meditation lessons will come in handy!
Munkles at 08:19 PM on 03/14/08
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I'm looking forward to setting up a secret, remote-access device to monitor and record the info this thing emits, all for myself. Then I can record how much unholy stress my boss puts me through, take it to a "sympathetic" doctor and lawyer, and sue the fuck out of him.
MaxTwice at 08:54 PM on 03/14/08
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Oh hum. Bas press is good press, as they say~

+ Watch video
MaxTwice at 08:55 PM on 03/14/08
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@MaxTwice: *bad* not Bas (thats a director's name, isnt it?)
bookling at 09:39 PM on 03/14/08
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What an awful idea. Part of having customer service skills is being able to hide it when you're super pissed off at that asshole customer. Nobody I know is ever genuinely happy 100% of the time they are at work.
Counterglow at 02:27 AM on 03/15/08
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So how long 'til we hear those tired old arguments, "If you aren't doing anything wrong, what are you worried about", or "It's a free country, you don't have to work in a place that does this"? (As though every employer who can afford it won't want every employee wearing the thing 24-7).

This just plain creeps me out.
Ghede at 02:43 AM on 03/15/08
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I want one. Not for employee monitoring, but for monitoring myself. It would be a nice training device. I shall learn to suppress emotion. It will come in handy when playing poker, and working in customer service.
bnpederson at 04:08 AM on 03/15/08
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To: Evil Tortie's Mom
From: bnpederson@hr.evilcorporation.net
Subject: Re: Human Dignity Allowance

Thank you for showing interest in your employee rights here at EC!

I regret to inform you that "Human dignity" isn't one of the benefits of working as a Customer Service Representative for the EC family. However, as a CSR, you are given one (1) fifteen minute paid coffee break (daily), one (1) thirty minute unpaid lunch break (daily), two (2) restroom breaks* (daily), ten (10) paid vacation days (yearly), ten (10) paid sick days (yearly), and many more benefits**!

We appreciate your questions and want to assure you that you're a valued member of the corporate family. Any suggestions you make will be taken under advisement, so long as they do not exceed your allowance of fifteen (15) suggestions (yearly).

Sincerely,

Brian
Human Resources
Extension 1138
Operating hours 6:00 am - 3:00 pm

*Excessive use of restroom breaks may result in management consultation and/or disciplinary action(s). What constitutes "excessive use" is individually managed by your CSR Supervisor.

**Full listing of employee benefits can be accessed by submitting three (3) duplicate TK-421 forms to the Human Resources front desk during normal business hours. May take 3-6 weeks of processing.
Jeff-Minor at 07:06 AM on 03/15/08
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As an employer, I just assume my emps are in a crappy mood, especially when I'm around.
botanicidal at 01:19 PM on 03/15/08
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Forget surveillance cameras; big brother is 'feeling' you.
napthia9 at 02:30 PM on 03/15/08
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Well, as soon as they slap that thing on my wrist, I'll probably be mad as hell, so maybe they'll assume that's just my normal state.
blurey at 02:53 PM on 03/15/08
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i love it! it would be the perfect thing to use on those that are under house arrest. i think it is a great idea. i would wear one if it meant getting paid more.-blurey
simmo at 06:07 PM on 03/15/08
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did anyone else see this picture. I lol-ed!

[www.exmocare.com]
Evil Tortie's Mom at 08:50 PM on 03/15/08
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@bnpederson: What about the sweaty people?

There's a fat guy in the next cubicle, and the scream he lets out every time his monitoring unit shocks him* is very disruptive to productivity. I think it scares the customers. They keep interrupting my script to ask "What's that? Is he okay?"

*summers only
electronic shaman at 04:34 PM on 03/16/08
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simmo: that pic is awesome!

Ghede: I'm with you, could be handy in refining the ol' poker face
BritishTexan at 11:28 PM on 03/17/08
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Wow. I'm quite honestly shocked that no-one else picked up on this being a direct parallel to a device in the Neal Stephenson and J. Frederick George book Interface that does much the same thing.