Mood Board: An IoT based Group Mood
Evaluation Tool
                                    Shikhar Makhija                                               Bimlesh Wadhwa
             Electronics and Communication Engineering Department                                  School of Computing
                      Netaji Subhas University of Technology                                 National University of
                                   Delhi, India                                              Singapore
                              shikharm.ec@nsit.net.in                                                   Singapore
                                                                                                    bimlesh@nus.edu.sg
   Abstract—The proposed tool, Mood Board extends the Mood                ability to recognize, understand and manage emotions [3].
Meter, a tool for social and emotional learning, by offering a platform   SEL, is one of vital yet neglected role in student’s
for group’s mood evaluation. Mood Board is a portable and
independent hardware evaluation unit for real-time evaluation of          development. [7] details that emotional tendencies vitally
group mood. This tool finds imminent application in schools to aid        impact apart from the learning styles, in students’ academic
educators in cultivating better learning environment and inculcating      and workplace performance. Mood Meter is a self-evaluation
emotional literacy among students.
                                                                          tool for SEL which can be used in a guided (classroom or
   Index Terms—mood, social and emotional learning, group
behavior, IoT, embedded systems, human computer interface                 workplace) or unguided (self-development) environment to
                                                                          gauge one’s emotional patterns and create a general emotional
                                                                          awareness [3], [8].
                                                                          This tool aids educators in developing their students
                       I. INTRODUCTION
                                                                          Emotional Intelligence (EI) and understand how and which
                                                                          emotions affect creativity, learning and quality decision
   Creativity, learning capability and academic or workplace
                                                                          making.
performance of students and groups are affected by emotional
                                                                            The four quadrants are based on two axis of core values,
intelligence, mood, emotions and sentiments [1], [2].
                                                                          which are: valence (Pleasantness, represented by the X axis)
Therefore, for applications ranging from improving team
                                                                          and arousal (Energy, represented by the Y axis) [3]. The
dynamics to effective learning environments, a requirement of
                                                                          overall emotional spectrum can be represented by hundred
tapping into each individual’s emotional spectrum in his work
                                                                          values, which implies x ∈ [−5,5] and y ∈ [−5,5]. Moreover, the
space, and in general cannot be disregarded.
                                                                          value ranges are distinctly defined for emotional spectrum’s
To quantify this emotional space and imbibe Social and
                                                                          Happy (x ∈ [−5,0), y ∈ (0,5] i.e. Istquadrant), Angry (x ∈
Emotional Learning (SEL), [3] proposed an Emotional Index
                                                                          [−5,0), y ∈ (0,5] i.e. IIndquadrant), Sad (x ∈ [−5,0), y ∈ (0,5]
(EI) ruler, commonly referred to as the Mood Meter. It is
                                                                          i.e. IIIrdquadrant) and Calm (x ∈ [−5,0), y ∈ (0,5] i.e.
based on two psychometric parameters, namely Energy and
                                                                          IVthquadrant), based on these core values. Refer 1 for values
Pleasantness to determine the emotional status (mood) of an
individual in the emotional space into hundred definite values.           assigned to each sub-emotion in every emotional spectrum.
Moreover, these values are distributed in four quadrants each             Thus, for example one is feeling Joyful, this implies x = 2 and
emulating four broad emotional patterns namely Angry,                     y = 2 and similarly, if we consider Enraged x = −5 and y = 5.
Happy, Sad and Calm, thus harboring twenty-five sub-                      Mood Meter, is a quality tool for SEL, yet it suffers some
emotions in them. In a setup such as classroom or work-group,             inherit disadvantages, such as:
the academic performance or work-efficiency, is not just                    1) Lacks ability to indicate overall group emotion, to the
dependent on an individual but also to the overall group’s                     educator/manager.
mood or emotion. [4], [5] supports these claims by indicating               2) Observation of each student needs to be taken manually
that individual temperament’s at different instances add up                    by the educator if he/she intends recording the group’s
and are the critical influencers that effect the group mood.                   emotional expression. Also, no absolute reference
Even vital processes like group decision making, are affected                  system exists for analysis.
by current mood of each individual [6] in the group. Thus, for              3) No inherit systematized record, for student’s emotional
improving work-group’s performance, there is a compelling                      distribution, leading to improper teaching or supervision
need for a method to be developed for evaluation and analysis                  method adopted.
of group emotion. In order to solve these problems, an                      4) For accessing students input, the educator is required
interactive IoT based application to evaluate group - mood is
proposed in this literature, named Mood Board, which further
extends the domain of Mood Meter.
                      II. BACKGROUND
  Social and Emotional Learning, accounts for developing
social and emotional literacy, which broadly super sets one’s
              978-1-7281-1253-4/19/$31.00 © 2019 IEEE
                                                                     (LCD) is attached which
                                                                     displays the current most
                                                                     entry, overall group mood
                                                                     and entries corresponding
                                                                     to     each      emotional
                                                                     quadrant. The input to the
                                                                     Mood Board is given
                                                                     through a Mood Board
                                                                     App [9] via. Bluetooth. 2
                                                                     presents the proposed
                                                                     model of the Mood Board
                                                                     Tool,     designed      on
                                                                     TinkerCAD [10].
                                                                     B.   Evaluation      of
                                                                     Group Dynamics
                                                                       The group mood value
                                                                     is calculated using the
                                                                     vector decomposition of
                                                                     the data entries existing on
                                                                     the Mood Board. As, each
           Fig. 1: Mood Meter Cartesian Representation               data entry on the mood
Adopted from: Copyright 2008 Emotionally Intelligent Schools, LLC.   meter is based on two core
                                                                     parameters, Pleasantness
                                                                                     to access a
                                                                                     standalone
                                                                                     software
                                                                                     application.
                                                                                     Thus, there
                                                                                     is          no
                                                                                     hardware
                                                                                     that       the
                                                                                     educator can
                                                                                     observe at
                                                                                     glance while
                                                                                     teaching/edu
                                                                                     cating which
                                                                                     can improve
                                                                                  Fi classroom
                                                                                  g. efficiency.
                                                                                  2: To cater to
                                                                                  M the      needs
                                                                                  o above, Mood
                                                                                  o Board,       an
                                                                                  d IoT tool for
                                                                                  B evaluation of
                                                                                  oa group
                                                                                  rd dynamics
                                                                                  : has       been
                                                                                  C developed.
                                                                                  A
                                                                                  D                III. MO
                                                                                  M                     OD
                                                                                  o                     BO
                                                                                  de                    AR
                                                                                  l                     D
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and Energy [3], they can be                        1                          f
considered as the projections on                   )                          o
the X and Y axis, respectively.                    i                          u
Based on these arguments, the                      =                          r
                                                   0
overall group mood can be                          �
equivalently understood as the                     �                          3
vector addition of the all the data                �
points on the Argand Plane. As,                    �                          ×
the     summation       can      be                �
equivalently represented as the                    �
                                                                              3
addition of all the abscissa and
the ordinate values, it can be                     =                          m
represented in an equation form                                               a
as follows:                                        ∑                          t
             �                                                                r
             �
                                                   �                          i
             X                                     �                          c
             �                                     i                          e
             �                                                                s
                                                   (
             =                                     2                          o
                                                   )                          f
             ∑                                     i
                                                   =                          L
             X                                     0
                                                                              E
                                      where, N = Total Entries and (xi, yi)
             i                                                                D
                                      are the co-ordinates of the             ’
             (                        ithentry.                               s
A. Introduction                                                               ,
   The
                                                                              r
Mood
                                                                              e
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                                                                              p
is    a
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                                                                              n
tool
                                                                              t
that
                                                                              i
extend
                                                                              n
s
                                                                              g
Mood
Meter
                                                                              t
with
                                                                              h
the
                                                                              e
enhan
ced
                                                                              f
ability
                                                                              o
to
                                                                              u
calcul
                                                                              r
ate the
curren
                                                                              e
t
                                                                              m
group
                                                                              o
mood.
                                                                              t
It
                                                                              i
consis
                                                                              o
ts of
978-1-7281-1253-4/19/$31.00 © 2019 IEEE
nal
spectr
ums
of the
Mood
Meter,
which
with
aid of
distinc
t
refere
nce
patter
ns
emula
te the
twent
y-five
sub-
emoti
ons.
Moreo
ver, a
Liquid
Crysta
l
Displa
y
978-1-7281-1253-4/19/$31.00 © 2019 IEEE
C. Algorithm                                                         respectivel   is          v      ilable    at
   ic Work                                                           y blink       a           a      [9].
   Flow                                                              alternative                   Fig.     one
                                                                     ly. An                        LED      minute
                                                                     example                       Patterns , the
                                                                     of this is                             connec
                                                                     given in           1) At               tion is
                                                                     6d. If both           Powe             droppe
                                                                     XG and YG             r-ON,            d.
                                                                     are zero,             the              Howe
                                                                     then all              Blueto           ver, if
                                                                     quadrants             oth              a input
                                                                                           Modul            is
                                                                     light up,             e     is         receiv
                                                                                           initiali         ed the
                                                                     indicating            zed,             current
                                                                     the                   an               data
                 Fig. 3:
                                                                                           empty            entries
                 Proposed
                 Algorithm                                           net-                  data             are
                                                                     emotional             record           appen
                                                                     spectrum              is               ded.
                                                                                           create        3) Interm
                                                                     as neutral            d and            ediate
                                                                     Moreover,             (XG,Y            State:
                                                                     number                G) →−
                                                                                                            After
                                                                                           (0,0).           this,
                                                                     of entries                             the
                                                                                        2) Follo
                                                                     correspon                              current
                                                                                           wing
                                                                     ding                                   entry
                                                                                           this, if
                                                                     to                                     is
                                                                                           a                displa
                                                                                           Blueto           yed on
                                                                     each                  oth
                                       emotional spectrum                                                   the
                                                                                           conne            LCD
                                       equivalent quadrant is                              ction
                                       displayed on the LCD.                                                screen
                                                                                           is               and
                                    7) A hardware reset option is                          establi          pattern
                                       present, as a button on the                         shed             corres
                                       Mood Board, as shown in                             with             pondin
                                       the CAD Model in 2 (the                             the              g to 4
                                       orange button), pressing                            Mood             is
                                       which the Mood Board                                Board,           displa
                                       comes to the initial state                          a                yed in
                                       and the data record is                              timer            the
                                       emptied.                                            is               quadra
                                                                                           initiali         nt
                                 D. Technical Details                                      zed. If          corres
                                   The current prototype is based                          no               pondin
                                 on         Arduino         Nano                           data             g     to
                                 (ATmega328P), 16 × 2 LCD,                                 stream           entere
                                 HC-05 (Bluetooth trans- receiver)                         is               d
                                 and nine LED’s of color’s Red,                            receiv           emotio
                                 Yellow, Blue and Green. The                               ed               n.
                                 schematic layout utilized for                             from          4) The
                                 prototyping the Mood Board is                             the              Blueto
                                 presented in 5. To input data to                          Mood             oth
                                 Mood      Board,   an    android                          Board            connec
                                 application was developed on                              app              tion is
                                 APP Inventor platform [11], and                           for              droppe
978-1-7281-1253-4/19/$31.00 © 2019 IEEE
     d after this, clearing way for                                                               which
     other devices. The internal      E. Application Demonstration
                                                                                                          inputs                   s
     interrupt     for    a    new           Input     (xval, yval)   (XG, YG)         Quadrant   can     be                       u
     Bluetooth connection is                HYPER            (1,4)        (1,4)         HAPPY             given                    c
     enabled.                             DESOLATE        (−3,−5)      (−2,−1)           SAD      from the                         h
  5) If no interrupt observed,             PEEVED          (−1,1)        (−3,0)       ANGRY/SAD
                                                                                                  Mood
     new values of XG and YG are      TABLE I: Sequential inputs to                               Board                            a
     calculated from (1) and (2),     Mood Board (top to bottom)                                          App.                     s
     respectively.                                                                                These                            s
  6) Static State: The quadrant in       6a represents the initial state                          inputs are                       c
     which the XG and YG lies, the    of the Mood Board. Three                                    mathematic                       h
     nine LED’s light up.             inputs HYPER, DESOLATE and                                  ally                             o
     However, if (1) or (2) are       PEEVED were given to the Mood                               decomposed                       o
     zero then the quadrants                    Board sequentially.                               to evaluate                      l
     which align with YG and                    For       these                                           and                      s
     XG ,                                       inputs, their                                     indicate                         a
                                      corresponding location on EI                                         the                     n
                                      Ruler, calculated values of XG                              group’s                          d
                                      and YG and quadrant in which                                overall
                                      they belong are shown in the I.                             mood. This
                                      The intermediate state for the                              tool is
                                      first entry HYPER is shown in
                                      6b. Static state results of the                             extremely
                                      Mood Board to DESOLATE and                                  simple to
                                      PEEVED, are shown in 6c and 6d                              use, thus,
                                      respectively.                                               finding an
                                                                                  rd: Schematic   imminent
                                                                                      Layout      application
                                                                                                  in platforms
                                                                                                  (a) Mood
                                                                                                  Board at         (c) Static
                                                                                                  initiation       State:
                                                                                                  Intermediate     DESOLATE
                                                                                                  State:
                                                                                                  HYPER            State:
                          F                                                                                        PEEVED
                          i
                                                                                                                            Fig
                          g
                                                                                                                            . 6:
                          .                                                                                                 Mo
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                          5                                                                                                 Bo
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                                                                                                                            De
                          d                                                                                                 mo
                                                                                                                            nstr
                          B                                                                                                 atio
                          o                                                                                                 n
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                                      work groups to gauge the group                [8]  http://ei.y
                     IV. CONCL                                                           ale.edu/m
                                      dynamics and thus, improve                         ood-
                         USION        creativity, learning and overall                   meter-
   Work group’s performance           performance.                                       app/
                                                                                         (retrieve
depends on a myriad of factors                            V. FUTURE                      d
such as emotional intelligence,                              SCOPE                       January
sentiments, moods and emotions                                                           23,
                                         Extended features for pushing                   2019)
than just the bounds of adopting
                                      the database entries from the                 [9] https://g
effective      team       work-flow                                                      oo.gl/kk
                                      Mood Board to a cloud, for a
balancing methods. Moreover,                                                             uX7c
                                      comprehensive        record-based                  (retrieve
majorly the overall performance       analysis can be constructed in                     d
accounts on the group’s mood                                                             January
                                      future. Moreover, the proposed
remark during different tasks, as                                                        20,
                                      tool is currently in a prototype                   2019)
the underpinning to evaluate the
                                      stage and requires further                    [10] https://w
overall performance. Thus, there is   evaluation    and    testing   in                  ww.tinke
a need for an application that                                                           rcad.com
                                      schools/work-groups.
enables      quantification     and                                                      (retrieve
mapping of individual to group                                                           d
                                                                    R                    January
mood. In this paper, we have                                        E
                                                                                         22,
                                                                    F
presented a novel IOT based group                                                        2019)
                                                                    E
mood evaluation tool, that further                                                  [11] http://ai2
                                                                    R
                                                                                         .appinve
extends the domains and reach of                                    E
                                                                                         ntor.mit.
the     Social    and     Emotional                                 N
                                                                                         edu
                                                                    C
Intelligence      Learning.     The                                 E
                                                                                         (retrieve
principle of this tool is based on                                                       d
                                                                    S
                                                                                         January
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