Computers that know you're having a bad day

The latest tech industry leader to join the 3D trend, Intel's new project takes the third dimension in a different direction. The company calls its new technology RealSense and says, among other things, it can read human emotions.

Intel has been talking about RealSense for a while, and even launched a dedicated YouTube channel for the technology. But this is the first time RealSense has seemed like anything more than Xbox Kinect for desktops.

Now, it seems to have feelings. Or at least it can sense yours. This week Intel showed off a bunch of its new quirks to a small group of press in New York City.

The RealSense 3D cameras will be able to sense basic human emotions like happiness, sadness and even frustration and exhaustion, by analysing the shape of lips, eyes and cheeks, Intel spokesperson Ellen Healy said.

Healy explained with 1080p resolution and high quality depth sensors, the RealSense 3D cameras can remove backgrounds, perform 3D scans and recognise 10-finger gestures. Intel also had a robot at the New York City demonstration, claiming that it too would have 3D sensing tech.

"People have 3D sensing, so the robot should have 3D sensing like us," said CTO of perceptual computing Achin Bhowmik. "It will recognise you, read your emotions: 'Why are you sad today? Should I sing you a song?' The future is crazy."