A research team led by Im Chang-hwan, a professor of Department of Biomedical Engineering at Hanyang University, announced on the October 6th that they have developed a neuromarketing technology that can track user’s preferences for products or modulates in user’s emotions by adopting mechanical learning to brain waves and bio-signal. 

This technology was used to demonstrate the effectiveness modulation of "mood- modulator" installed in Hyundai Motor's recently released Genesis G90. The experiment with 48 drivers confirmed its excellent effect on changing the emotions of users positively.

The results of this study were published online on the September 13th in “Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing IF=13.99)", the most prestigious academic journal in the field of affective computing. 

Changes in users' preferences or feelings for their products have been investigated from a survey conducted on virtual users. However, since individual emotional changes are difficult to quantify and can be distorted depending on the investigation method, neuromarketing techniques using brain waves or bio-signals have been studied to quantitatively investigate product preferences. In fact, in global companies, the process of identifying consumers' preferences for products in advance using neuromarketing techniques before launching products is becoming common.

Although it is common to use several well-known indicators to evaluate users' preferences or emotions using brain waves, the pre-existing method has been used only as an auxiliary data for survey results because of the large difference in brain waves by individual.

In order to improve this, Professor Im's team overcame the large individual difference in brain waves by showing various videos that induce various emotional states to experimental participants and creating a machine learning that can track emotional changes for each individual.

Professor Im's team with Hyundai Motor Co., jointly demonstrated the emotional improvement effect of mood-modulator installed in the 2022 Genesis G90. Mood-modulators consists of four modes (Vitality, Delight, Care, Comfort) that control lighting, music, fragrance, and electric curtains to modulate a driver's emotional state. The experiment was conducted on 48 men and women in their 20s and 30s with more than a year of driving experience in the vehicle. In experiments, negative emotions were reduced quickly and effectively compared to when mood curators were not executed in all four modes, as well as the intended emotional states were modulated effectively in each mode. 

Professor Im said, "Although various studies are being published in affective computing field, there have not been many cases applied to the production stage in actual industry. Neuromarketing technology using brain waves and bio-signals is expected to improve the national competitiveness, if it is applied to various domestic industry fields."