Reading–and recording–those ever-changing moods

Using mobile for tracking and trending moods is fairly new (T2 Mood Tracker, Ginger.io), but reading those moods using recognition software is new and still rather experimental. Two Massachusetts-based companies, Cogito Health and Affectiva, both spinouts of MIT Media Lab, use personal recognition in different ways–Cogito in observing vocal and facial clues, Affectiva in facial clues and measuring the sympathetic nervous system through skin response. Both are based on webcams (facial), audio/phone and skin sensors. Despite the headline, neither is a startup, having found markets in customer service, advertising and survey research. Healthcare startups aim to gauge emotion with mobile tech (Healthcare IT News)