This would be a machine that measures your vital stats, then begins playing thirty seconds each of different kinds of music while measuring the changes in pulse, blood pressure, etc, to find out which songs you respond best to. It would then burn a CD of tracks tailored to what you want to be listening to right now. This could even be taken a step further, and give you music to change your mood.
-- rooney, Oct 25 2003

Affective Computing http://affect.media.mit.edu/
(My former employer) [beland, Oct 04 2004]

phase rock looped.
-- bristolz, Oct 25 2003


I like the idea of bio-feedback for music. "Music hath charms to tame the savage breast", eh?
-- Klaatu, Oct 25 2003


If this went well that machine could be like the best, most tunned in, connected DJ. But I don't know how it would be able to tell the difference between songs in the same genre/mood which might make a huge difference to you.
-- SmartyPants, Oct 25 2003


I really like the motivation behind this idea, but I would have thought that completely opossite moods (like anger and excitement) produce the exact same blood pressure and pulse variations in the listener. It's adrenaline, after all. How would the machine be able to determine which is which without mistaking?
-- Pericles, Oct 26 2003


Well, if you want to be calm after being either angry OR excited, it would give you some calming music. Either way it would calm you down. They may be opposite and similar, but that just makes it easier to fix.
-- rooney, Oct 28 2003


Or you could just keep hitting "Seek" on the radio dial until you find an interesting station.
-- DrCurry, Oct 28 2003


If you live in a small town like me, that's not a choice. There's three top 40 stations, six country stations, and one Hispanic station. And a really fuzzy oldies station, which is the only one I listen to. I do CDs and records mostly.
-- rooney, Oct 28 2003


Well, pop random CDs in then.
-- DrCurry, Oct 28 2003


That's the point. Sometimes, I don't KNOW what I want to listen to. Would I rather listen through CDs for an hour or take five minutes of my time and let someone else pick for me?

And another idea to distinguish between exitement and anger: It would come up with a screen saying, "These are some possible moods you may be in. Click HERE if you're exited and try not to smash the computer in if you're angry" or that sort of thing, and if you were neither you could ask to retake the test.
-- rooney, Jan 22 2004



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