They can track your friends and family, allow you to book a table in a restaurant, tell you the latest news and weather and now alert you if you are sounding stressed – is there anything a smart phone can’t do?!
This new app is called ‘StressSense’, it is able to track stress levels by identifying patterns in a users voice. In order to achieve this, the app first needs to be trained on how an individual’s voice sounds when they are not stressed. Upon buying the app, after taking time to relax, users must read a three minute insert from a book.
This recording is then used as a comparison for any other time the user is speaking into the phone. It is specifically designed to recognise the sometimes inaudible physiological changes that stress can create in an individual’s voice.
The developers of the app intends to add the an extra application known as BeWell which is intended to use the smartphones Positioning System (GPS) in order to reliably tract not only when the individual is stressed but also the conditions that are leading to that emotional response. These developments are to allow the user to track when and more importantly why they were stressed in order that they can avoid such stressors if possible in the future.
In addition, the developers said they will be able to also track sleep patterns with the app, in order to assess how stress may be impacting sleeping habits and vice versa.
It has been confirmed that users will be able to decide whether the StressSence app is active listening to their voice through the day, picking up on different situations and events throughout the day like meetings or whether the SmartSense is only activated by phone calls.
The app is reported to be being unveiled in September at the Ubicomp conference in Pennsylvania.
