Imagine a kid with a doll
all of that kids positive affect vocalizations, as well as many of their facial patterns can be detected
The doll particularly the doll's software accumulates data over a few months
Parents use the data to detect preferences plus make beneficial suggestions
Naturally my version of this would be emotion reading with digital thermography as well as audio speech recognition plus galvanic skin response
This is certainly described with movies The difference here is mostly the software that guides the parent
The software could even verify quality of life at childcare centers as the doll responses of various kids dolls could be databased online to describe quality of care
The doll could have a companion kind of like the way Polly Pocket works that does measurement while at school without being obtrusive
with the review software its a nice bully blocker as well as a new directions resource-- beanangel, Nov 07 2008 Wikipedia: Galvanic Skin Response http://en.wikipedia...vanic_skin_response [theGem, Nov 07 2008] Halfbakery help file: [mfd] magic http://www.halfbake...ial/help.html#magicOne of the technologies I explicitly list is using galvanic skin response to reliably measure someone's mood. [jutta, Nov 07 2008] [marked-for-deletion] magic.-- Spacecoyote, Nov 07 2008 If you measured your mood [bean] what number would it be? And what might the (finally accepted) SI units be?-- zen_tom, Nov 07 2008 The idea has merit. Creating a doll that can collect the digital thermography and galvanic skin response data is probably doable. The galvanic skin response is the basis of the lie detector and there are plenty of books to guide a parent to respond to the emotions that a child is displaying.
So you add a bluetooth bracelet for the kid to wear to read the GSR and program the doll to ask questions like "Are you pissed off with mommy?" and then guide the parent to hide the kitchen knives.
The real question is whether you can correlate the readings to other emotions like happiness. So maybe what you need is a study where you use the doll to collect the data and compare it to the observed mood to see if there is any correlation.
So [Spacecoyote] [Zen] I don't think it's magic at all and I bet you two don't believe in Santa either. I vote to [Unmark-it-for-deletion]-- theGem, Nov 07 2008 Galvanic skin response is always going to be a tricky thing to measure from a child with drool and/or other electrolytic substances such as jam or juice on (all over) their fingers. If you could measure it consistently (measurements, like those performed during 'lie detection' are done under very specific, clinical conditions - after the machine has first been carefully calibrated to find a person's 'rest' level through a series of questions and responses. I honestly don't think a covert galvanic skin response measurer is going to provide any useful information in the rough and tumble environment of the playroom - any data that is collected is going to be spiky due to fluctuating contact patters.
Same goes for digital theromthingy - calibration, extracting meaning from data etc.
Audio speech recognition remains, which I'm assuming is the thing where stress/excitement levels are read in an adult person's voice (supposedly in use by insurance companies to give an indication of whether a claimant is lying to them on the phone) but don't children get excited over all sorts of things?
Children who are undergoing unhappiness or stress at home are more likely to be withdrawn, or can react violently, or become clingy and look for comfort. All three of these reactions (and I'm sure there are more) are perfectly normal in other situations, and would show completely differently in all of the measurement schemes described.
I don't know, I'm just not sold.-- zen_tom, Nov 07 2008 You don't have to be, it's ad supported --"Please consider making a donation to the Church of Scientology to further GSR research".-- Spacecoyote, Nov 07 2008 Well then maybe we will just have to go with the tried and true indicator, if the kid rips the head off the doll and eats it maybe we got a problem or maybe he's just hungry.-- theGem, Nov 07 2008 This is a sort of Martian child-rearing scheme, no?-- MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 08 2008 actually the main idea is to verify quality of life at childcare centers as the doll responses of various kids dolls could be databased online to describe quality of care
the new directions resource idea is that maybe it leads to finding out likes
visualize a graph of how long or unusual the daycare providers vocabulary wods are as well as a graph of vocal caregiver or peer friendliness
this gives the parent an opportunity to tell a gruff "time for snacks" compared with "snacks of all nations buffet means smorgasbord"
If the daycare were part of the process they could create play groups then graph the kids moods plus participation, then adjust groups to provide the greatest benefit
you could graph positive nteractions per hour
Kish Kish a Skype product has a voice stress analyzer its near 77 to 79 pt effective at truth detection the area of nterest here would be much more on mood quality plus vocabulary-- beanangel, Nov 11 2008 Just install a noise activated tape recorder in a regular doll and send it with the kid, and have him/her bring it back with with him/her when its time to come home.-- Spacecoyote, Nov 11 2008 random, halfbakery