X-ray glasses provide entrepreneurial vision

This article first appeared on October 7th, 2011.

A pair of “social X-ray” glasses can tell you what another person is feeling, and when you should stop talking, a US researcher has claimed.

The glasses have a built-in camera, which monitors facial expressions and matches them up with 24 known features that convey emotions. It will then indicate how the person is responding via an earpiece and lights on the glasses.

A red light means negative, amber means they are moderately interested and green means your listener is happy.

Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who are making the glasses, say 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.

MIT electrical engineer Rosalind Picard eventually hopes to create a pair of “augmented-reality glasses”, which would overlay the information onto the lens so the user could see exactly how someone felt.

Imagine how popular this technology would be in classrooms or even at speed dating sessions – users could instantly gauge the feelings of their “opponent”. Perhaps it’s worth looking into.