Mood-tracking app paves way for pocket therapy

An Android app which keeps tabs on users' mood swings and works out what might be causing them has been developed by researchers, with implications for psychological therapy and improving well-being. Behind the scenes, smartphones are constantly collecting data that can turn them into a key medical and psychological tool. Neal Lathia A smartphone app that tracks people's feelings and works out what might be triggering peaks in their mood, using the data invisibly captured by their phones, has been developed by researchers. The free app, called "Emotion Sense" has just been launched and is available for Android. It takes advantage of the fact that smartphones are increasingly capable of collecting information about where we are, how noisy our environment is, how much we are moving around, and who we communicate with. Unlike other, similar, research projects, Emotion Sense then combines systematically-gathered data from a wide range of sensors with the user's own report about their mood, which is entered through a system designed by psychologists. First, the user is asked to mark how they feel using an on-screen matrix called an "emotion grid".