Amazon reportedly developing emotion-sensing wearable device - MedCity News

Amazon has a health-oriented wearable in the works that has the potential to use voice recognition technology to sense emotional states, according to a report from Bloomberg. The product (codenamed Dylan) is being developed by Amazon's hardware development team Lab126 and its Alexa division. Designed to be worn on the wrist, the device seemingly has a form factor similar to a smartwatch. According to documents and sources cited by Bloomberg, Amazon is currently beta-testing the technology which has built in speakers to pick up vocal inflections and commands. While these capabilities seems more like science fiction, the technology is grounded in research about vocal biomarkers that can pick up issues like depression or anxiety or function as a diagnostic aid. Startups like San Francisco-based Ellipsis Health and Boston-based Sonde Health are operating in a similar space.