Intelligent mobile phone will sense owner's mood

By MATTHEW BEARD

American scientists are developing an "intelligent" mobile phone capable of blocking incoming calls depending on the owner's mood.

Using "context aware" technology the "Sensay" phone will monitor calls and send back polite messages saying the user may be contacted later.

An early prototype combines a phone and personal organiser and uses an armband and belt-worn box both fitted with sensors to help to build a profile of the owner's situation.

US researchers at the Institute for Complex Engineering Systems at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, are close to developing body temperature and electrical skin monitors to help the device understand the emotional state of its user.

If the phone senses that the user is busy - for instance, involved in a conversation - it might block an incoming call and divert it onto voicemail.

The phone would send back a text message to say the user is unavailable, but advising that if the matter is urgent the caller can try again in three minutes.

If a call from the same person was received within that time, the phone would put it through.

The researchers are interested in four basic different states - busy and not to be interrupted, physically active, idle, and "normal".

Most people are said to change between these states an average of six to 12 times a day.

Professor Asim Smailagic, a leading member of the Carnegie Mellon team, told The Engineer magazine: "Today's computers are pretty dumb compared to these devices.

We got to work at the beginning of May and since then have been improving it.

The next stage is to make it smarter, adding various intelligence systems so it can learn about the user.

"The phone also employs four primary sensors - two microphones to pick up conversations and monitor local noise, a light detector and an accelerometer.

The light sensor shows if the phone is being carried in a bag or pocket, while the accelerometer determines whether the user is walking, running or standing still.

In future, the sensor box, phone and personal organiser will be combined into one device.

- INDEPENDENT