RESEARCH
New computer system that spots emotional sentiments
Eden Saig, a computer science student at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Israel, has developed the computerised learning system which spots emotional sentiments, such as sarcasm and irony, in text messages and emails and it could even detect content that suggests suicidal idealizations. It works by recognizing repeated word patterns.
According to Saig, voice tone and inflections play an important role in conveying one’s meaning in verbally communicated message.
In text and email messages, those nuances are lost and writers who want to signify sarcasm, sympathy or doubt have taken to using images, or “emoticons,” such as the smiley face, to compensate.
The system was initially constructed to identify key words and grammatical habits that were characteristic of sentence structure implied by the content’s sentiments.