Ad man's dream - a tool to measure emotion

Published on Wednesday 13 February 2008 20:40

IT SOUNDS like a piece of science fiction, taken straight from Blade Runner or Minority Report: the machine that can read your emotions.

Yet the technology being unveiled today by an Edinburgh company takes some of the guesswork out of advertising by allowing agencies to judge a person's reaction to an advert.

The Emotion Tool software, made by Danish firm iMotions, works with existing eye tracking technology to measure a person's emotional response to a printed advertisement.

The tool is being launched in the UK by User Vision, which works with public bodies and private firms to analyse the accessibility of websites, mobile phones and other media.

Chris Rourke, the managing director and founder of User Vision, said: "We see adverts all the time, every day. The ones that we remember the most are the ones that you have an emotional reaction to. That can be very positive or it could be slightly shocking, like the Benetton adverts."

He added: "Lie detectors rely on monitoring your pulse, how much you're sweating and other physiological indicators that can be measured, using rather intrusive wires. "This technology aims to get the same type of data but instead it relies on what's happening with your eyes, measuring blink-rate, pupil dilation and eye movement patterns, whether your eye focuses on one spot or your gaze shifts around."

Mr Rourke said the software worked best with static adverts.

"Typically, the users look at a series of images, which could be mixed in with images from other companies for variety," he said. "They're shown each image for about ten seconds and we can measure what their emotional response is. We have to put them in a calm environment."

Emma Kirk, User Vision's strategic director, said the software complemented eye tracking devices used by the firm.

"With the eye tracker, we have a standard screen, with a small device at the bottom that fires out invisible sub infra-red light beams," she explained. "They latch on to the fovea, at the back of your eye, which then reflects them back to a detector at the top of the screen. The machine then calculates where your pupil is focusing in between the transmitter and detector."

In Denmark, the software was used to analyse adverts featuring Thomas Gravesen. Pictures featuring the footballer elicited a negative response, which was partly blamed on his decision not to play for the national side.