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Affective Computing published by Rosalind Picard
Pichard thought at first researching how emotion and technology were related would jeopardize her chances of becoming tenured at her work. But publishing her findings caused her to be the frontrunner of an entirely new branch of study; the study on how technology is becoming more lifelike and responsive to emotions.
Affective Computing Paper -
Virtual Assistants
Clippy is one example of how affective computing can be used as a virtual assistant in software like Microsoft Office. Clippy was in a sense customer service, but the service was annoyingly intrusive. Virtual assistants are now a part of our daily lives, whether it be Siri, a google home or a smart speaker. Today's assistive technology is having conversations with us, detecting when we are stressed, and in instances is considered part of the family.
Clippy -
Facial Recognition
This image is part of Rana el Kaliouby's dissertation on "Mind-Reading Machines," it highlights the key characteristics that are present in the six basic emotions. Technology that can help those for instance with autism and are suffering from face-blindness, when they cannot tell how someone is feeling just by looking at their facial expressions, is something that I wish I knew about when I was struggling with face-blindness as a child.
Link for dissertation Photo p33. -
Atlas® Robot
Boston Dynamics unveiled their new robot Atlas. This robot was "designed to perform rescue functions in situations where humans cannot survive" (Markoff). Although not directly tied to affective computing, Atlas is a bipedal humanoid robot that is able to run, jump, climb stairs, and even do flips. We are making technology capable of completing tasks as if it was human.
atlas webpage -
Atlas® Robot
Video of Atlas doing parkour Markoff, John. “Modest Debut of Atlas May Foreshadow Age of 'Robo Sapiens'.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 12 July 2013, www.nytimes.com/2013/07/12/science/modest-debut-of-atlas-may-foreshadow-age-of-robo-sapiens.html. -
Marketing Implications
Rana el Kaliouby gave the keynote address at MIT's IDE annual conference. During her speech she talked of using facial tracking software to 90% of the positively determining the emotional state of the sampled individual. Our book talks about el Kaliouby sampling viewers of Super Bowl ads to gain "real-world" responses. Companies can use facial recognition emotional computing softwhere to evaluate the responsiveness of new clients to their products increasing profit margins
https://bit.ly/2NjkKFo -
Therapy
With where affective technology is currently, I see a change in how therapy sessions might be administered. Affective technology is already able to determine basic emotions based on facial expressions; the combination of this technology with tone/pitch sensors and the ability to determine restlessness or hostility could allow a person to interact with a computer that interprets the incoming data and is able to provide a diagnostic or help the person work through what they are sharing. -
Almost lifelike
This is an image from a game named "Detroit: Become Human," Where androids are made to serve humans, however, the androids no longer want to be mindless servants, they want to become human. I do think affective computing will become able to feel emotions and become something more than a piece of technology, I think they will become equals, and possibly a way you can live past initial death, it the tech is created.
Image source
