WEBVTT - Can Your Face's Temperature Reveal Your Mood?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, brain Stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren vocal bomb here. If you're anything like me, in

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<v Speaker 1>moments of embarrassment, your face may flush and suddenly feel warm,

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<v Speaker 1>But during times of intense concentration, the opposite is true.

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<v Speaker 1>You're more likely to keep a cool head, or rather

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<v Speaker 1>a cool face. According to new research, a study that

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<v Speaker 1>evaluated facial thermal temperatures revealed that as a person engages

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<v Speaker 1>in intense mental tasks, their face and in particular the

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<v Speaker 1>area around the nose, becomes cooler. The study, done by

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<v Speaker 1>researchers at the University of Nottingham's Institute for Aerospace Technology

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<v Speaker 1>and published Indie journal Human Factors, paves the way towards

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<v Speaker 1>applying thermal cameras in the workplace as a tool to

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<v Speaker 1>assess how focused or possibly overwhelmed a worker might be,

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<v Speaker 1>which would be a little much for many work environments,

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<v Speaker 1>but could help prevent dangerous situations where people's safety depends

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<v Speaker 1>on a worker's concentration. One a you know where a

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<v Speaker 1>frazzled worker could become a deadly serious concern is in

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<v Speaker 1>the cockpit. Passenger air traffic has doubled every fifteen years

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<v Speaker 1>since the nineteen eighties and is expected to double again

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<v Speaker 1>by four according to an Airbus Global Market forecast. The

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<v Speaker 1>forecast predicts that pilots may be operating and increasingly congested

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<v Speaker 1>skies and more often without copilots. If air traffic controllers

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<v Speaker 1>and others on the ground can detect through thermal facial

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<v Speaker 1>imaging when a pilot is in a moment of intense concentration,

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<v Speaker 1>they can offer to help, perhaps through remote control mechanisms,

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<v Speaker 1>or at least not further distract the pilot with unnecessary communications.

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<v Speaker 1>To evaluate how temperatures within a person's face change during

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<v Speaker 1>periods of concentration, the researchers assembled fourteen students and faculty

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<v Speaker 1>members at their university and had them complete computer based

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<v Speaker 1>tasks of increasing difficulty. As the subjects completed each challenge,

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<v Speaker 1>their breathing and pulse rates were recorded, and a thermal

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<v Speaker 1>camera took detailed readings of temperature from previously mapped locations

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<v Speaker 1>on their faces. The researchers found that the link between

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<v Speaker 1>the difficulty of each task and the coolness of the

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<v Speaker 1>subject's facial temperatures was striking. Co author Alistair Campbell Ritchie

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<v Speaker 1>of the University of Nottingham's Bioengineering Research Group said in

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<v Speaker 1>a press release, we expected that mental demands on an

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<v Speaker 1>operator would result in physiological changes, but the direct correlation

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<v Speaker 1>between the workload and the skin temperature was very impressive

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<v Speaker 1>and counterintuitive. We were not expecting to see the face

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<v Speaker 1>getting colder. The results were later replicated among a sample

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<v Speaker 1>of pilots as they operated flights on simulated helicopters. We

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<v Speaker 1>spoke with Sarah Sharple's, professor of human factors at the

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<v Speaker 1>University of Nottingham and co author of the study. She

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<v Speaker 1>said there are a couple of possible explanations for why

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<v Speaker 1>the nose area in particular becomes cooler with increased concentration.

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<v Speaker 1>One is that breathing rate tends to increase as a

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<v Speaker 1>person's mental workload increases, and more air traveling through the

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<v Speaker 1>nose would decrease its temperature. The other is that during

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<v Speaker 1>periods of high mental workload, blood diverges to the prefrontal

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<v Speaker 1>cortex of the brain. That could mean, Sharples says, that

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<v Speaker 1>more blood is flowing away from the nose and towards

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<v Speaker 1>the brain. It could also be a combination of these factors.

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<v Speaker 1>Sharpe's added, however, that there were a few exceptions to

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<v Speaker 1>the cool nose phenomenon. For that reason, she says, we

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<v Speaker 1>would recommend, if this were to be used in a

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<v Speaker 1>real world context, that there be some baseline testing to

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<v Speaker 1>understand how close the relationship is in each individual between

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<v Speaker 1>facial temperature and workload. We also spoke with Archangelo Merla,

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<v Speaker 1>director of the Infrared Imaging Lab at the Institute for

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<v Speaker 1>Advanced Biomedical Technology at Italy's University of Kiati Pascuera, who

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<v Speaker 1>agrees that baseline testing is critical when interpreting changes in

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<v Speaker 1>people's facial temperatures. Merla's research has shown that facial temperatures

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<v Speaker 1>can reveal a range of conditions, from whether or not

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<v Speaker 1>a person is lying, to feelings of fear or stirrings

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<v Speaker 1>of lust. Merla has also found that the temperature of

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<v Speaker 1>the nose often offers a key signal. He said, reading

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<v Speaker 1>nose temperature is an effective physic theological tool as an

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<v Speaker 1>indicator of a transition state, but the best approach is

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<v Speaker 1>to take into account changes in temperature across the entire face.

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<v Speaker 1>Apart from pilots, sharples, and visions, that thermal cameras could

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<v Speaker 1>play a role in assessing workload and other settings, including

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<v Speaker 1>in factories where workers interact with large machinery. But if

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<v Speaker 1>the idea of your boss keeping tabs on you via

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<v Speaker 1>a thermal camera, feels intrusively big brethery, you're not alone.

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<v Speaker 1>Sharples asks, for example, who would own a worker's thermal data,

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<v Speaker 1>the worker or the employer. She said, you can imagine

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<v Speaker 1>a situation where thermal imaging data intended for real time

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<v Speaker 1>monitoring could be stored and then presented during an end

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<v Speaker 1>of year performance report. It's my feeling that these kinds

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<v Speaker 1>of technologies will increase in the workplace, so we have

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<v Speaker 1>to make absolutely sure we deal with all the ethical, legal,

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<v Speaker 1>and social implications. Today's episode was written by Amanda Onion

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<v Speaker 1>and produced by Tristan McNeil and Tyler Klang. For more

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<v Speaker 1>on this end lots of other cool topics, visit our

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<v Speaker 1>home planet, How staff Works dot com. M