EXHIBIT:

MIT Mood Meter is designed to assess and display smiles related to the overall mood of the MIT community by putting cameras at four different locations. By gathering and aggregating facial affective information (i.e., smiles) from people around campus, the Mood Meter can estimate and reflect the overall mood of MIT during the Festival of Art, Science and Technology.

Although smiles are not only the sign of a good mood, they can be used as one barometer of happiness. This project is intended to raise awareness of how our own smiles can positively affect the surrounding environment, and to assess how friendly MIT might appear as a community. The dynamic, real-time information may help with answers to questions such as “Do midterms lower the mood?”, “Does warmer weather lead to happiness?”, and “Are people from one department happier than others?” For the latter, we are measuring smiles in the Stata Center and in the Media Lab. Other Mood Meters are installed and displayed in the Stratton Student Center and in the Infinite Corridor in Building 8.

MORE INFORMATION:

The following video provides a good overview of the project:

The project was recently presented at TEDxNewHaven. You can find the video here.

More details about the technology and findings can be found at:

SUPPORT:

This project has been funded with the awards provided by the Festival of Art, Science, and Technology (FAST), and Council for the Arts at MIT (CAMIT).

The team members are sponsored by Media Lab Consortium and Caja Madrid Foundation.