Ever meet somebody and wonder if they are full of it or feelin the luv? Here is some great news, especially for those of us old enough to remember the popular mood rings — things that changed color supposedly depending on the wearer’s mood so the rest of us could give them a hug or take cover. MIT Media Labs announced today that it has released an app for iOS and Android (News - Alert) devices that allows you to point your smartphone camera at someone, turn on the voice recording capability and get an instant read on them. Called, the bi-directional sentiment meter (B.S. Meter for short), it is available for download for free at www.mitmedialabs.edu.

MIT (News - Alert) Media Labs lead researcher in sentiment and behavior analysis, ironically named  I.M. Moody, stated in a press release on the subject that, “In today’s business world, as well as in personal intimate relations, knowing who you are dealing with is critical. There are a lot of disingenuous people out there, not to mention sociopaths. As far as we are concerned we think most people do believe that an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure.” Moody added, “We have taken the famous Eagles song ‘there ain’t no way to hide your lyin eyes’ a huge step further by through the evaluation of a lot more of peoples senses and behaviors.”

The B.S. Meter app leverages years of breakthrough work at MIT Media Labs involving facial recognition, speaker dependent and independent voice recognition, retinal scanning and several other sensory detection and evaluation techniques and combines them with powerful  algorithms. This enables the app to act as a portable and accurate 21st century version of a lie detector. Moody says that tests of B.S. Meter were corroborated by a series of personality tests administered to 500 participants in a two-year study. The tests demonstrated a 95 percent degree of accuracy for the app in predicting whether the person in front of you is friendly or a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Thanks to my position here at TMCnet I received a beta version of the app for my HTC (News - Alert) 4G LTE phone. Without going into details, and while this is admittedly anecdotal, I can say that it worked 100% of the time. I can also tell you it made a recent trip to my car dealer for  service an enlightening experience.

What all of this is likely to mean for both business dealings, dating and indeed all close-proximity interactions remains to be seen. Moody says it could end up having significant anti-social consequences if people use it as an excuse to only interact electronically. I for one like it and will not leave home without it. As the late Harold Geneen, CEO of what was then one of the world’s largest conglomerates used to tell his other C-levels in meetings, “No Surprises!” That is what the B.S. Meter is all about. Thank you MIT Media Labs.     

JUST KIDDING! HAPPY APRIL FOOL’S DAY FROM YOUR PALS OVER AT TMCNET!