Scientists develop new call centre emotion technology

Date: 29/11/2011

Companies looking to improve their call centre operations by purchasing 0800 numbers may be interested in the results of new research into the sector.

Scientists at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) and the Universidad de Granada in Spain have developed technology that enables machines to identify the emotional state of a caller.

When an individual contacts a number, factors such as their tone of voice, the speed at which they talk and the length of the pauses in their speech are analysed.

Using the results, the machine can then establish what kind of emotional state they are in, particularly if they are experiencing negative feelings such as boredom or anger.

David Grill, a professor in UC3M's Computer Science Department, said: "Thanks to this new development, the machine will be able to determine how the user feels (emotions) and how s/he intends to continue the dialogue (intentions)."

This is not the only new technology firms may wish to adopt, as a study conducted by ContactBabel recently found there is likely to be an increase in uptake of speech analytics in contact centres.