New Emotive technology analyses mood of the nation via Twitter

Scientists from Loughborough University have reportedly developed a new computer programme which can reportedly process up to 2,000 tweets a second to predict the emotions of the country. It is hoped the Emotive software will help pinpoint areas of civil unrest and potential societal uprisings.

The technology assesses whether tweets contain anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, surprise, shame or confusion.

The popularity of Twitter means it is a powerful tool with which to assess the feelings of the nation, and with 10,000 tweets sent out every second in the UK, academics behind the software hope it will help contribute to public safety by mapping out angry, unsafe areas of the country that could be potentially dangerous.

Drawing on the incident of the murder of solider Lee Rigby in Woolwich, where many took to social media websites to express their disgust and, a few, their plans for vengeance, before a wave of unprovoked attacks took place on Muslim mosques, it is hoped the software will help prevent similar future incidences.

Professor Tom Jackson, leader of the research team, commented: “Twitter is a very concise platform through which users express how they feel about a particular event, be that a criminal act, a new government policy or even a change in the weather.

“Through the computer program we have created we can collate these expressions of feelings in real time, map them geographically and track how they develop.”

So far only being used to analyse UK-based tweets, researchers have said if the technology proves useful, it could be scaled up to process tweets on a global level.