How many times has someone with an urgent message not been able to get through to you? Or vice versa? Fret no more because according to New Scientist there is now software for voicemail systems that can identify the emotional state of the caller. The more urgent sounding the voice, the higher priority of their message. Of course, with new technology comes new dangers:

But Andrew Monk, from the University of York, UK, warns that Emotive Alert could be manipulated by spammers. Telemarketers and voicemail spammers will design messages designed to score highly on urgency metrics so that they can be artificially boosted to the top of your priority list.

The more things change the more they stay the same…