14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft is continuously looking to innovate, and after creating an advanced wristband, the company is again looking at smart devices with a new project developed by Microsoft Research.
The so-called SWARM device is a smart scarf that can react to your emotions and can vibrate based on a number of factors. It can also heat up based on data collected from other devices and can communicate with surround smart objects via Bluetooth.
Microsoft says that the smart scarf was designed from the very beginning to “aid in interpreting and/or enhancing one’s personal emotions and alerting the wearer of others' emotions.” What's more, the company explains, the device can really help people with disabilities because it can be used to transmit data collected from people around.
Looking just like a regular scarf
Microsoft has released just a single photo of the device, and at first glance, it looks just like any other regular scarf. It does, however, come with built-in modules that can communicate with other devices and help those with disabilities interpret emotions of people around them.
“While this is potentially valuable for everyone, both areas of personal and group emotion management have particular implications for people with disabilities. People with vision or hearing impairments, for instance, may not receive important visual or verbal cues of others’ emotions,” the company explains.
SWARM comes with its very own smartphone app that puts you in full control of the device, but it can also react automatically to your emotions.
For example, if you get nervous and start sweating, the scarf could detect this and try to cool you off and thus help control your emotions and remain calm. Such functionality is still in the works right now, Microsoft says, but could be added at a later time.
Needless to say, SWARM is currently in prototype phase and it could take years until we see this in production, but as always, it's proof that Microsoft's Research unit comes up with some really innovative ideas that can change the world easily.