Affective computing

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Affective computing

• Lotzi Bölöni

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Affective computing

• Emotions and computers.
• Initiator of the field Rosalind Picard at MIT
• http//affect.media.mit.edu/
• Controversial at the first sight
• Computers which have emotions?
• Isnt this too early (in the process of making
  computers intelligent)?
• Commander Data lots of intelligence no
  emotions
• In reality, the field deals with a lot of
  different fields, some of them not controversial
  at all.

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Computers which recognize emotions of the users

• Essentially, it is a sensor problem.
• We are very good at recognizing emotion when we
  are face to face
• Maybe because it is important but lets leave
  this discussion for later
• We have difficulty recognizing emotions through
  written text (except it is very well written).
  This is why we use smileys -) -(
• Computers needs to recognize emotions from
  limited input
• Text typed
• Typing speed, mouse movement (shaking hand etc)
• But we can add extra sensors
• Blood pressure, heart rate, perspiration
  salinity, skin surface conductivity (sweaty hands
  etc).

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Why would computers recognize emotion?

• Pilots, train conductors should not get angry
• Security recognize anxiety?
• Lie detectors used for long time
• Interactive tutoring systems
• detect boredom, interest, frustration
• adapt
• Detecting replicants
• See Blade Runner / read Do Androids Dream of
  Electric Sheep?
• No controversy here.

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Computers faking emotions

• Basically a human-computer interface problem
• You need to know what emotion to display, and
  when
• Embodied agents, robots.
• Applications
• Toys virtual (Tamagochi), embodied (Aibo robotic
  dog)
• Games avatars in games
• E-commerce systems an affective virtual
  salesperson sales more (supposedly)
• Interactive tutoring
• Again, not controversial

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Computers having emotions

• 1. action selection (e.g., what to do next based
  on the current emotional state)
• 2. adaptation (e.g., short or long-term changes
  in behavior due to the emotional states)
• 3.social regulation (e.g., communicating or
  exchanging information with others via emotional
  expressions)
• 4. sensory integration (e.g., emotional filtering
  of data or blocking of integration)
• 5. alarm mechanisms (e.g., fast reflex-like
  reactions in critical situations that interrupt
  other processes)
• 6. motivation (e.g., creating motives as part of
  an emotional coping mechanism)
• 7. goal management (e.g., creation of new goals
  or reprioritization of existing ones)
• 8. learning (e.g., emotional evaluations as
  Q-values in reinforcement learning)
• 9. attentional focus (e.g., selection of data to
  be processed based on emotional evaluation)
• 10. memory control (e.g., emotional bias on
  memory access and retrieval as well as decay rate
  of memory items)
• 11. strategic processing (e.g., selection of
  different search strategies based on overall
  emotional state)
• 12. self model (e.g., emotions as representations
  of what a situation is like for the agent")

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An example of emotion being afraid

• 1. afraid of spiders
• 2. afraid of large vehicles
• 3. afraid of a large vehicle careering towards
  you
• 4. afraid of a thug asking you to hand over your
  wallet
• 5. afraid your favorite party is going to lose
  the next election
• 6. afraid you have some horrible disease
• 7. afraid of growing old
• 8. afraid that your recently published proof of
  Goldbachs conjecture has some hidden flaw.