Emotion detection on webpages using biosensors integrated to a window-based dynamic control system

PurposeDetecting emotion on user experience of web applications and browsing is important in many ways. Web designers and developers find such approach quite useful in enhancing navigational features of webpages, and biomedical personnel regularly use computer simulations to monitor and control the behaviour of patients. On the other hand, law enforcement agents rely on human physiological functions to determine the likelihood of falsehood in interrogations. Quite often, online user experience is studied via tangible measures such as task completion time, surveys and comprehensive tests from which data attributes are generated. Prediction of users' emotion and behaviour in some of these cases depends mostly on task completion time and number of clicks per given time interval. However, such approaches are generally subjective and rely heavily on distributional assumptions making the results prone to recording errors.Design/methodology/approachThe authors propose a novel method-a window dynamic control system that addresses the foregoing issues. Primary data were obtained from laboratory experiments during which forty-four volunteers had their synchronised physiological readings, skin conductance response (SCR), skin temperature (ST), eye movement behaviour and users’ activity attributes taken using biosensors. The window-based dynamic control system (PHYCOB I) is integrated to the biosensor which collects secondary data attributes from these synchronised physiological readings and uses them for two purposes. For both detection of optimal emotional responses and users' stress levels. The method's novelty derives from its ability to integrate physiological readings and eye movement records to identify hidden correlates on a webpage.FindingsResults show that the control system detects basic emotions and outperforms other conventional models in terms of both accuracy and reliability, when subjected to model comparison that is, the average recoverable natural structures for the three models with respect to accuracy and reliability are more consistent within the window-based control system environment than with the conventional methods.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper is limited to using a window control system to detect emotions on webpages, while integrated to biosensors and eye-tracker.Originality/valueThe originality of the proposed model is its resistance to overfitting and its ability to automatically assess human emotion (stress levels) while dealing with specific web contents. The latter is particularly important in that it can be used to predict which contents of webpages cause stress-induced emotions to users when involved in online activities.