Computers may soon understand people better than their spouses do, courtesy of innovations from startup Affectiva that expand on groundbreaking sensing research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Affectiva co-founder and MIT professor Rosalind Picard showed off the fledgling firm’s feelings-sensing applications at a Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco.

“Feelings are complicated,” she said. “Now, we can begin to measure them and learn.”

Affectiva technology enables computers powering websites to scan web camera imagery for facial expressions, eye movements, and gestures that provide clues to emotional reactions to anything from film scenes, to game action or ads.

“It is getting past wishful thinking and wondering to understanding what is really going on, and that makes it much more actionable,” Ms Picard said.

“We all have trouble reading emotional cues when we are on the web,” she continued. “Everybody who has been there for a while has been misunderstood at some time.”

People with web cameras connected to computers were invited to try the technology by viewing a set of ads online at an “Interactive: Analyze Your Smile” page at forbes.com.

Ms Picard provided a glimpse at a “Q Sensor” that can be strapped to a wrist or ankle to assess when people are excited or bored. The sensor measures electricity being conducted through the skin to determine arousal.

A research version of the Q Sensor was available, with a consumer model due out by the end of the year.