Perhaps the next bit of wearable tech might be a mood ring? While we’re pretty sure Apple isn’t working on a Bluetooth connected mood ring, they are looking at ways to target ads to users based on such metrics as behavior and mood…
Apple’s “Inferring user mood based on user and group characteristic data” patent application looks to offer advertisers and content providers a more intuitive and effective way to target users.
Apple’s patent document notes that a user’s response to targeted ads can be affected by any number of factors, such as location, time of day, their current activity, and even their mood. Apple wants to be able to leverage these factors to provide more accurate ad targeting.
Apple’s system not only takes into consideration the users mood, but also what demographics they fit into, their behavior, their current location, the time of day, and more.
The system would analyze mood data collected over a period of time to generate a “baseline mood profile” for the user. Then the user’s current mood-associated data can be compared to the “mood rules” that have been generated, and can be used to serve up an appropriate bit of advertising. (Feeling blue? There’s psychiatrist 2 blocks away…)
Various bits of data can be used to determine the current mood of the user, including heart rate, blood pressure, perspiration, vocal expressions, and more. Behavioral cues can also include what types of media you’re listening to or watching, what social networking activities you are participating in, and more.
Mood can even be gauged by the system via the camera, using facial recognition software.
While this all sounds quite interesting, I’m thinking user privacy rights come in to play somewhere in all this, so it’s probably going to be quite awhile until Siri says, “You have played ‘Alone Again (Naturally)‘ by Gilbert O’Sullivan 37 times in a row, would you like to try Match.com?”
The patent application for Apple’s mood-based ad system was filed for in 2012, and credits Michael Froimowitz Greenzeiger, Ravindra Phulari and Mehul K. Sanghavi as its inventors.
