Article: How couch potatoes watch TV could hold clues for advertisers

Advertisers really want to see you sweat. Or smile. Or bat an eyelash. Or anything, it seems, that might demonstrate a new commercial or program has enough of an effect on you to prompt a physical reaction.

At Boston's Innerscope Research, researchers routinely outfit television watchers in a T-shirt-and-vest combination that measures perspiration, breathing, movement, and heart rate. On top of that, they may also monitor how different viewers' eyes move as ads and programming roll.

The whole process is part of a burgeoning movement to determine whether the active emotional responses of what once were believed to be slack-jawed couch potatoes can help some of the nation's biggest marketers ...

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