Friday, May 29, 2015

Machine Learning - Now Spotting Depression

I'm in a booth with a computer program called Ellie. She's on a screen in front of me. Ellie was designed to diagnose post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, and when I get into the booth she starts asking me questions — about my family, my feelings, my biggest regrets. Emotions seem really messy and hard for a machine to understand. But Skip Rizzo, a psychologist who helped design Ellie, thought otherwise.

When I answer Ellie's questions, she listens. But she doesn't process the words I'm saying. She analyzes my tone. A camera tracks every detail of my facial expressions.

"Contrary to popular belief, depressed people smile as many times as non-depressed people," Rizzo says. "But their smiles are less robust and of less duration. It's almost like polite smiles rather than real, robust, coming from your inner-soul type of a smile."

Ellie compares my smile to a database of soldiers who have returned from combat. Is my smile genuine? Is it forced? Ellie also listens for pauses. She watches to see whether I look off to the side or down. If I lean forward, she notices.

All this analysis seems to work: In studies, Ellie could detect signs of PTSD and depression about as well as a large pool of psychologists.


- More Here

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