Signals are constantly running throughout our bodies. Electrical, chemical, and mechanical messages carry highly amplified messages about our physical, emotional and psychological state from the decision-making centers in our brain to the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems of the body that help the body prepare for “fight or flight” versus “rest and digest”. Evolutionarily these systems have been critical to avoid getting eaten by tigers, finding food, and conserving energy but in the 21st century with the help of carefully engineered sensors like EmotiBit, it’s possible to derive a moment-by-moment portrait of our emotional state. How this information about internal context might help you become a faster learner, share deeper empathy, or enjoy lower stress and better health will be the subject of a future post (so stay tuned!), but here I want to talk a little bit about biometrics, how to derive them, and what’s possible with state-of-the-art science & technology. To explain how that works, let’s start with some examples.