Scientists Claim Robots May Detect Human Emotion By Touching Skin

As studies are making big leaps towards improved human-robot interaction by equipping the artificial intelligence to better understand the human, scientists recently found that the future robots will be able to understand what human emotions are just by touching their skin.

The study published in the journal IEEE Access noted that scientists used skin conductance as a way to figure out how an individual was feeling. Skin conductance refers to the measurement of the electrical conductance of the skin, namely the degree to which the skin transmits a small electric current between two electrodes.

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The changes in the skin’s electricity in response to sweat secretion and nerve activity can signify different human emotions, thus enabling the robots to understand human feelings. The traditional emotion-detection technologies, such as facial recognition and speech analysis, are often prone to error, unlike skin conductance, which arguably offers a better solution to capture real-time human emotions.

The scientists used 33 sample participants, collecting their emotional responses while showing them evocative videos. When their skin conductance was measured, the findings showed distinct patterns for different emotions.

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The study pointed out that fear responses were the longest-lasting, suggesting an evolutionary alert mechanism, while family bonding emotions, such as happiness and sadness, showed slower responses. Humor, notably, triggered quick but fleeting reactions, NDTV quoted the study.

The study also noted that there have been fewer studies on the skin conductance responses and the reflection of its changes in emotions.

The scientists believe that the result of the study will have far-reaching impact in the research in the ongoing studies by contributing to the development of technologies that can be used to accurately estimate emotions. Although the method has many drawbacks, the researchers are of the view that integrating it with measures like heart rate and brain activity could refine the accuracy of emotion detection.

The scientists hope that further exploration in these areas can discover technologies for recognizing human emotion and subjective experiences, perfecting