Imagine a world where machines can understand grief or happiness or anger. That world is not to far away as Feelix Growing is current working on creating the technology that would allow robots to interpret and read human expressions. Such technology could be the first step towards the integration of robots in the lives of everyday people.

What the software will allow the robot to do is essentially learn when a person is feeling a certain way. Using cameras and sensors, the robots will be able to detect several variables from the human including their facial expression, voice, and tone. It will then combine the factors to determine what mood the person is in. A simple comparison to how it works would be the way a small child picks up on things according to its surroundings.

The ability to detect emotions in humans will be a huge step for the robotics world. It will allow robots to better connect with humans and help them out in times of distress. It will also allow the machines to realize when they are not needed or vice-versa.

The project, which involves several countries and specialists, hopes to crack what is only the barrier to a robot-filled future. The software currently in progress will certainly only be a stepping stone and will need to be worked on for quite some time before it is advanced enough to recognize different emotions in different people. It is still no where near what we see in the sci-fi movies, but it’s a start and hopefully one that will blossom into what is only a dream for many today.