Saturday, May 09, 2009

"You seem to be trying to write an angry rant, can I help?"

You're familiar with spell check and grammar check, are you ready for word processors with an emotional content check?

These "sentiment analysis" tools are a branch of a wider area of computer science that is trying to teach computers to understand the feelings expressed in text just as well as humans do, and the commercial applications of such technology are already starting to be realised.

The early adopters of these tools are the owners of big brand names in a world where company reputations are affected by customer blogs as much as advertising campaigns. A small but growing group of firms is developing tools that can trawl blogs and online comments, gauging the emotional responses brought about by the company or its products.

This reminds me of the cellphone apps that you can program to not let you call your ex when you're drunk.

No comments:

Popular Posts