Choosing the right music for the right occasion, or even the right emotional state, can be a delicate undertaking. Too fast! Too slow. Too loud! Too soft. The makers of Moodbox think they’ve figured out what you haven’t tried since the last time you made a mix tape.
Billed as the first “emotionally intelligent speaker,” the wireless and Bluetooth-enabled, voice-controlled Moodbox mixes music and lighting to match your mood. It’s powered by Emi, the “emotionally intelligent heart” that gets to know you. Unlike Alexa, the voice of Amazon’s AI-enabled speaker Echo, Emi apparently wants to really understand you — your moods, likes, and dislikes, so that she can “enhance any mood, situation or feeling.”
According to a news release, Emi “constantly collects and analyzes audio signals and music lyrics to provide efficient retrieval of millions of songs by genres, styles, mood, and artist.” Emi is programmed to recognize thousands of features such as pitch, energy and speaking rate from a large dataset of emotional speech data.
A video from iVo Technologies, narrated by Emi, shows off the glowing device, in which it bills itself as your “personal mood DJ.” No word on whether it plays weddings, but Emi does welcome a woman home from work who tells the Moodbox (because it greeted her when she walked in, of course) that she got a promotion. Emi decides “This calls for a celebration,” and starts playing upbeat music.
The device is the brainchild of Pascale Fung, PhD at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
“If you are having recurring rainy days, or Monday blues, or feeling a lack of energy or inspiration at the office, MoodBox knows,” Fung said in the news release. “Our MoodBox app provides a complete analysis showing mood fluctuations based on what you have been listening to, what you have been saying and how you having been saying it. It also takes into consideration factors like the weather or the time of day, week or month.”
The Moodbox is currently seeking backers through crowdfunding on Indiegogo and had raised $25,000 on a flexible goal of $40,000 as of Wednesday afternoon. Two styles are planned: Classic, with a future retail price of $299, and Premium, with a future retail price of $399.
