Bill Gates' Brave New Classroom: "Biosensors to monitor U.S. students' attentiveness"

[Mark Crispin Miller]

From 2012, yet still as grotesque an idea as it was then.

MCM

JUNE 13, 2012 / 1:41 PM / 8 YEARS AGO

Biosensors to monitor U.S. students' attentiveness

Stephanie Simon

7 MIN READ

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-education-gates-idUSBRE85C17Z20120613

DENVER (Reuters) - The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has poured more than $4 billion into efforts to transform public education in the U.S., is pushing to develop an “engagement pedometer.” Biometric devices wrapped around the wrists of students would identify which classroom moments excite and interest them — and which fall flat.

A biometric bracelet named "Q Sensor" is shown in this undated image released to Reuters on June 13, 2012. According to the manufacturer's website, the sensor measures "emotional arousal in real-world." The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has poured more than $4 billion into efforts to transform public education in the U.S., is pushing to develop an "engagement pedometer." Biometric devices wrapped around the wrists of students would identify which classroom moments excite and interest them -- and which fall flat. The foundation has given $1.4 million in grants to several university researchers to begin testing the devices in middle-school classrooms this fall. REUTERS/Affectiva/Handout

The foundation has given $1.4 million in grants to several university researchers to begin testing the devices in middle-school classrooms this fall.

The biometric bracelets, produced by a Massachusetts startup company, Affectiva Inc, send a small current across the skin and then measure subtle changes in electrical charges as the sympathetic nervous system responds to stimuli. The wireless devices have been used in pilot tests to gauge consumers’ emotional response to advertising.

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