New Smartphone App Can Measure Your Happiness – Creepy, or Not?

Get ready for EmotionSense!

Cambridge University researches have now created an app that can measure the user's happiness and mood.

Called EmotionSense, the as yet Android-only application that uses a combination of data go gauge what emotional state the user is in.

From the website fastcompany.com:

Information from the phone, such as what time it is unlocked each morning, how many texts and calls are made and received, movements, location, and external noise, can be used to gauge just how social the individual is being. And then there's the human layer, which asks the phone's owner to determine their mood--these have been devised by psychologists.

This isn't the first time such an idea has been done,  in 2010 the London School of Economics created the "Mappiness"  i-Phone app, but this is the first time the phone itself is gathering and analyzing the data.

Some critics are wary because the app can access the SMS (text message records)  in the phone, but the creators say the data is only being used currently within the study project itself.

The app was initially designed for potential use by therapists, who, over a two-month period, can use the data from the phone to determine a person's general mood about life.  They say the medical and psychological benefits could be wonderful,  others say it's just a new, scary chapter in the case of technology becoming more intrusive.

Developers say it will soon be available for the i-Phone.

Scientific and cool, or scary?