Computers are not emotionally intelligent? Think again

In the field of affective computing, which develops systems that can recognize, interpret and simulate human emotions, technological breakthroughs have enabled sensors and other devices to excel at observing and interpreting facial expressions, body posture, speech, gestures and physical states of humans to understand their emotions.

With such technology already in use, computing is gradually augmenting and improving on human emotional intelligence.

In high pressure environments like Wall Street, where fortunes rise and fall on one decision, emotional states of employees can be used to determine whether they are likely to make mistakes.

Consequently, big banks like JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America are partnering with tech companies like Humanyze to acquire sensor-laden employee badges which can be used to guide employees by assessing their emotions.

Companies like Cogito have come up with "real-time emotional intelligence" technologies which analyze conversational dynamics and speaking patterns.

This technology enables supervisors to guide call centre agents to adjust to the emotional state detected in the customer and speak accordingly with empathy, confidence, professionalism and efficiency.

Cogito's analytics provide insight into customers' experiences and agents' behaviour on every call, thus allowing for future improvements.

A company called Nuralogix, combining machine learning AI and Transdermal Optical Imaging, has created a technology which assesses blood flow to a human's face to reveal hidden emotions.

Along the same lines, MIT researchers announced a device called EQ-Radio, which, they claim, can assess a human's emotions at any given moment with an accuracy of 87%.

These technologies will soon replace polygraph lie detectors.

While "self-driving" autonomous vehicles are programmed to follow traffic rules and regulations, there are other concerns.

A start-up called BARIQ is teaching a autonomous vehicles to read its passengers' comfort levels through in-cabin sensors and drive accordingly.

Another start-up called Drive.ai has created a deep learning AI for autonomous vehicles which is able to signal its intentions to humans through movement, lights and sounds.