Marketing experts measure brain waves and skin current to predict emotions

Machines still can’t think, but they can now validate your feelings, according to new research by New Jersey Institute of Technology assistant professor George Fresneda.

Fresneda began her career as a chemist and then became an expert in neuroanalytics. He studies that measure brain activity and Conductivity of the skin can predict a person’s emotions with high accuracy, and how such information can be used in fields such as entertainment, management, marketing and well-being.

“Neuromarketing is a subfield within marketing that uses sensors for marketing purposes, to inform managers and make better marketing decisions,” explained Fresneda. He collaborated with colleagues at NJIT’s Martin Tuchman School of Management—professor Jerry Fjermstad and doctoral student David Eisenberg—as well as Virginia Tech graduate research assistant Tanmoy Sarkar Payas, to publish Neuromarketing techniques to enhance the prediction of consumer preferences at the 57th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences earlier this year.

For now, mostly Marketing research It relies on people self-reporting their reactions to anything from sales pitches to dramatic videos. Fresneda found that if you add electroencephalogram (EEG) probes, which detect brain waves, and galvanic skin response (GSR) sensors, which measure electrical conductance, you get more information about marketing stimuli. can predict people’s emotions more accurately than their self-reports. This is determined by feeding the results of various sensors through a graphing algorithm and then comparing them to existing academic databases.

The field is not as remote as it seems. Modern EEG devices, at the non-healthcare level, are small enough to blend into a typical Bluetooth headset. And GSR sensors, unlike Frankensteinian sound, are already built into the latest Samsung smartwatches.

Fresneda added that the most impressive sensor network could be deployed at the American Dream Mall in North Jersey. Although not fully in use, he said it would potentially be capable of collecting GSR data from radio frequency data transmitted by smart devices, or smart shopping bags, and linking that information to social media profiles. Is.

At a demonstration by retail store managers, opinions were mixed. All but two appreciated the technology’s ability to provide feedback to managers and sales staff on their performance, Fresneda said. Those who were against it were very strong in their opinion about privacy concerns.

As a consumer, Fresneda said he would be willing to wear such technology, since most shoppers already allow companies like Amazon, Google and Facebook to track them. “If I get value in return, yes, of course. But you have to show me,” he said. “Otherwise, I’d be legitimately scared.”

“Furthermore, the same algorithms can be used for measurement. Emotional responsesuch as relaxation or fear, which can potentially measure people’s responses to different emotional experiences,” their paper said.

“Future research could use the same algorithm to predict consumer liking or choice for a variety of products, as well as in new product development, beyond music videos. Customer satisfactionworker satisfaction, or even tracking employee productivity.”

Fresneda and his colleagues are now working on a follow-up journal article, based on a test of applying the technology to areas such as consumer finance. It has been submitted for fast track consideration. AIS Transactions on Human Computer Interaction. The team is also in the early stages of developing patents that apply their research to healthcare and video games.