Amazon wants to make a wearable that can read your emotions

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Would you want your fitness tracker to understand how you're feeling? Amazon is reportedly developing a product that can determine human emotions as well as your overall health and fitness.

According to internal documents seen by Bloomberg, the company is working with its partner Lab126 - the company that also worked on Amazon's Echo speaker range - on a device that will use microphones and software to determine your emotional state.

These assessments are all driven by your tone of voice, and the company reportedly believes this device may one day be able to offer advice on how the wearer could better interact with people.

Work has reportedly been in progress on the project recently, but there's currently no sign of when it will be released. There's absolutely no guarantee it will definitely be released either.

Amazon carries out extensive product development for a variety of different ideas, not all of which will ultimately be sold.

A person familiar with the project has said that a beta project is already under way, with a trial of the software and the product itself going on in the wild.

Exactly how the emotion-reading technology will work is currently a mystery, but if it's something the company is able to achieve with a level of accuracy it may be a game-changing product for Amazon, just like its smart speakers were.

James Peckham

James is Managing Editor for Android Police. Previously, he was Senior Phones Editor for TechRadar, and he has covered smartphones and the mobile space for the best part of a decade bringing you news on all the big announcements from top manufacturers making mobile phones and other portable gadgets. James is often testing out and reviewing the latest and greatest mobile phones, smartwatches, tablets, virtual reality headsets, fitness trackers and more. He once fell over.