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Couples Counseling – Coming to a Wrist Near You
When X and Y don’t get along, sometimes they need Z to intervene. That’s one simplified explanation of couple’s therapy—when a couple can’t come to an understanding together, they utilize a third party to help uncover and mediate the problem. Apparently, a human isn’t the only one for the job now. Wearables, a new tool for the Couple’s Counselor A team of researchers at USC are running a study to uncover the biometric signals that lead up to a conflict between couples. By outfitting couples with special wearable sensors and smartphones to collect data, they can gain insight into what lies beneath the surface during the conflict. It’s interesting to see them attack a huge and age-old problem in a new way, especially since no one likes to see domestic disputes get out of hand. We can all agree that couples don’t just wake up one day and hate each other, it’s usually a culmination of events - a snowball effect. By tracking body temperature, heart activity, and sweat – three physiological indicators that signal changes in mood, affect, and emotion – Wearable Counselors are looking to melt that snowball before it starts gaining speed. They can line this data up against conversations to match internal cues with external reactions, thus learning if someone’s blood actually boils before they get angry. They haven’t gone out of their way to induce arguments since that would be unethical, but they have been able to record a lot of data because what couple doesn’t have troubles now and then? So far, their machine-learning algorithm has been able to capture episodes of conflict with 86% accuracy.