The founder of the Belfast-based emotional response production company Sensum thinks that the entertainment industry is ripe to embrace bio-feedback tech. “The entertainment industry has an incredible opportunity,” said Gawain Morrison, co-founder of Sensum. The company’s products can capture and display participants’ emotional responses to a contest or
an activity, like measuring bikers’ heart rates during a motorcycle race.
Morrison said that there has been a misunderstanding about the value of biometric data in entertainment but that is set to change with the avalanche of wearable technology using common software. This allows emotional response data to be moved around from a smart watch to a smart TV
to a stadium screen.
“The Bluetooth communications for biometric transfer have opened up and the software platforms have opened up. We have an SDK for Android and for IoS in the next six months that allows people to build creative interfaces and apps and interactive game play or whatever.”
And Sensum has the analysis tools that can help interpret the data. “Wearables won’t work for everything but it’s part of the new world of entertainment and audience engagement,” said Morrison. “It could be phenomenal for current affairs, like a political debate show, or entertainment shows like XFactor or I’m a Celebrity where you are looking for audience response or even getting insight into what the people on stage are feeling as well. You’d be able to pick up on all the biometrics.”
www.sensum.co
