Picard and her colleague Rana el Kaliouby are commercializing these technologies through a company called Affectiva, which might revolutionize market research by unobtrusively measuring facial expressions, skinconductance and heart rate in subjects responding to new products.
Commercial trials are under way on Affectiva's skin-conductance sensors, wristwatch-size devices that detect emotional engagement by measuring tiny changes in sweat-gland activity.