“It’s an emotional thermometer,” said Anthony Perzo of Emobot, a device that can analyze human emotions, one of the latest applications to be conquered by artificial intelligence (AI) at CES, a technology trade show in Las Vegas, AFP writes.

Emobot, which looks like a loudspeaker or a minimalist sculpture, carries out “continuous emotional monitoring” thanks to a camera and microphones, explains the technical director of this French company.

It is used to detect possible mental disorders in older people, such as depression or anxiety.

Perched on a piece of furniture, the robot monitors a person’s facial expressions, movements and tone of voice throughout the day to detect any significant changes in behavior and thus avoid emergency hospitalization.

Anthony Perzo and three other co-founders of Emobot hope to provide an answer to the risks associated with loneliness.

Their device, which has already been tested in nursing homes and private homes, should allow treatment and therapy to be adjusted without waiting for the next psychiatrist visit.

Algorithms are able to “analyze micro-facial expressions” that reflect human emotions, which are themselves a mirror of “our psychological and psychiatric state,” the engineer explains.

In health care, artificial intelligence, which is capable of collecting and analyzing large volumes of data in real time, has long been used to make many diagnoses, from cancer to urinalysis.