June 28, 2010

Software that detects blogger’s depression levels

by Gareth Mankoo

A software application has finally been developed, so as not to make the life of bloggers and other computer-stationed personnel harder, but to tell what’s troubling them. It’s been mastered and developed in Israel’s Ben-Gurion University. The application’s diagnosis is limited only to blogs though. In a recent test, about 300,000 blogs (which had content in English) were scanned by the program and these were also passed under the critical noses of clinical psychologists. It was gathered that about 78% of the diagnosis on these blogs by the program matched those of the psychologists.

It’s likely that the application makes use of keywords that refer to diabolically depressed mindsets such as ‘suicide’, ‘crying’ or ‘depressed’. It’s quite a work of art I say, reading moods with words.
[Impactlab]