I kid you not. In late August someone posted the following to my Blog:

Dear Robin,
sir i want some detailed notes on the ibm's emotion mouse.i mean what is it?,how it works?,some pics..if u have it can u plz forward it to me.
Arun

I have not been briefed, but this morning, just before getting my morning coffee fix, I quickly Googled the web for information about an emotional mouse. And indeed there is an IBM research project (a BlueEyes project) which seeks to capture the emotional state of the computer user from the mouse.

Here's the idea. The mouse is loaded with sensors which read your physiological attributes (a bit like a lie detector). To be precise, “heart rate is taken by IR on the thumb, temperature is taken using a thermosistor chip, GSA is taken through the mouse device driver, and GSR is taken through fingertips.” You use these readings to establish baseline emotional states and thus you can identify if someone is getting uptight or becoming exhilarated.

To my mind, a better application—or perhaps a more acceptable application—for this mouse might be to detect your state of health. Trying to find out more I went to www.almaden.ibm.com/cs/blueeyes/mouse.html. However it didn't tell me the key things that I wanted to know; what do GSA and GSR stand for?

An abbreviation resource on the web indicates that GSA may stand for; Girl Scouts of America, General Support Artillery, Geological Society of America, Gay Straight Alliance, Google Search Appliance or Gerontological Society of America. So I'm not sure exactly what is being detected here. GSR is clearer. It either means Galvanic Skin Resistance or Gun Shot Residue. Clearly if you have gun shot residue on your hands, it could provide clues to your recent emotional states.