You can already read minds. And soon computers will be able to as well

Can you read minds? "The answer is most likely yes," says Professor Peter Robinson of the Computer Laboratory at the University of Cambridge.

"You may not consider it mind reading, but our ability to understand what people are thinking and feeling from their facial expressions and gestures is just that. People express their mental states all the time through facial expressions, vocal nuances and gestures.

"We have built this ability into computers to make them emotionally aware."

So far, the computer program developed by Prof Robinson and his colleague Dr Rana el Kaliouby of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has been tested by actors, pulling exaggerated expressions to gain a response.

Next Monday that will change when the program becomes part of the Royal Society's annual exhibition and the public is asked to test-drive the technology.

So far it appears to have worked rather well. "Machine-versus-people" testing of this system has shown the computer to be as accurate as the top 6 per cent of people.

But would we want computers that can react to our emotions? There are applications with clear benefits. For example, researchers are working on "emotional hearing aids" to assist people with autism - who are thought to be "mind blind" and have difficulty interpreting others' emotions. More prosaically, mind-reading machines could also be used for alarms that tell car drivers when they are about to fall asleep.

But there is a potentially darker side.

"Such systems do raise ethical issues," Dr Robinson says. "Imagine a computer that could pick the right emotional moment to try to sell you something."

You’ll find the exhibition at The Royal Society, 6-9 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AG. There's more information on the web here.

Comments

[Peter]

I can not see this working in my lifetime. How many years have we been trying to get a computer to pick out peoples faces, say coming through an airport terminal? It did not function too well as they found out in Australia. Here in Germany the police have been experimenting as well with face-recognition computers, mainly for motorists. Again, it did not function too well.

I would be very interested in an emotional hearing aid. Can't for the life of me understand how it would work bearing in mind the problems we have this day and age with hearing aids already. Yes, they are light years ahead of the early versions, but still have a long way to go.