Dr. Eva Cerezo Bagdassarian Affective Lab

Computing Department. University of Zaragoza (Spain)

Affective Computing

There can be no knowledge without emotion Arnold Bennet (1967-1931)

SEGAN: Serious Game Network

• Affective aspects in HCI • The role of emotions • Emotions and intelligence • What are really the emotions? • Affective computing • Applications

Questions

• HCI has traditionally focused in designing

effective and efficient systems. • Nowadays it also looks for interactive affective

systems capable of: – Detecting user emotions. – Pretending to have emotions – Causing positive emotions in the user. ► Affective Design

• A system capable of recognizing and responding to the affective state of the user would significantly improve the interaction, leading to a more natural, pleasant and effective interaction.

Affective aspects in HCI

• In 1994 Antonio Damasio, a famouos neuroscientist, published the book Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain, in which he stands for the necessity of emotions for intelligence.

• In 1996 Daniel Goleman published Emotional Intelligence.

• In 1997 Rosalind Picard (MIT) published the book Affective Computing. Since then many scientists in Artificial Intelligence have been conviced of the fundamental role of emotions and have developed models that take them into account.

The role of emotions: milestones

Damasio based his arguments on some examples:

• Phineas P. Gage (1823–1860) was an American railroad construction foreman who survived to an accident in which a large iron rod was driven completely through his head. Much of his brain's left frontal lobe was destroyed. Within an hour he was talking normally and describing the gory episode in detail to doctors. Within two months he was "cured.“ • But something had changed. It didn't take long for friends and relatives to notice new and unpleasant personality traits: rudeness, profanity, unreliability, boastfulness. A man once admired by his crew for good sense and steadfastness: friends saw him as "no longer Gage”. • He maintained a high intellectual capacity but had lost certain emotional reactions.a steady job again.

The role of emotions: milestones

Emotions and intelligence

Beyond the traditional contradistinction between intellect and emotion more recent theories show the strong influence of the emotions in the rational thinking mechanisms. In particular, emotions seem to have an essential role in:

• learning • long-term memory • decision making.

Affect in psychology refers to the ability of feeling. Usually it is differentiated between: • Emotion: short-duration process related with things/persons (happiness, shame, anger, sadness,…) • Mood: processes with longer duration. • Personality: inclination to react to stimuli in a certain way.

What are the emotions?

There are two important groups of theories about emotions: • Neurological theories: emotion is a mental state caused by the influence of certain chemicals. • Cognitive Theories: emotions are an heuristic to process information in the cognitive domain.

The theory of the two factors state that the appraisal of the situation combined with the physiological body state creates the emotional response: Emotions depend on the two factors.

What are the emotions?

Expression of emotions: Despite the diversity of theories about emotions there is one point of consensus: the observable properties of the emotions. Evident for the others: • Facial expression • Voice intonation • Gestures • Movements • Posture • Pupil dilation • Skin colour

Not so evident for the others: • Respiration • Beats, pulse • Temperature • Sweat • Muscles action potentials • Blood pressure

What are the emotions?

There is no agreement about many questions related to emotions: is surprise an emotion? Is it possible to feel an emotion without being aware of it?...

• “If we want computers to be genuinely intelligent and to

interact naturally with us, we must give computers the ability to recognize, understand and even to have and express emotions”

Rosalind Picard (MIT)

Affective Computing MIT Press 1997

Emotions and Computers

There are four phases: • Recognizing emotions • Expressing emotions • Having emotions • Emotional intelligence

Emotions and Computers

Usually based on: – Voice – Facial expressions – Biological signals: galvanic skin response,

electromiograms, temperature, pulse,...

Recognizing emotions

Expressing emotions

The basic requirement is to have communication channels such as voice and image, and the ability of expressing emotions through them.

Having emotions/Emotional intelligence For a system to have emotions it needs to have emergent, primary and cognitive emotions, consciousness of own emotions and cognition affected by emotions. A system with emotional intelligence should also be able of recognizing others’ emotions and use own an other emotions to generate adaptive behaviours and advanced cognitive goals (learning, motivation, creativity,…)

Aplicaciones Affect-aware tutors (MIT)

Applications

Affective computing and autism (MIT)

Applications Companion Robots: • Aibo (Sony, Japan)

• I-Cat (Philips, NL)

• Paro (Wanda et al, Japan)

• Huggable (MIT, USA)

Applications Emotions are used to give more realism to video games : SIMS2

Applications T-learning application

Applications Contents evaluation: the EmoTracker

Dr. Eva Cerezo Bagdassarian ecerezo@unizar.es

Affective Computing

SEGAN: Serious Game Network

De manera análoga se pueden agrupar las emociones en tres clases:

• Emociones primarias: Las más antiguas desde el punto de vista evolutivo; dependen únicamente de mecanismos reactivos • Emociones secundarias: Se basan en mecanismos deliberativos • Emociones terciarias: A veces no se distinguen de las secundarias. Implican la interrupción del auto-control, e.g. la pérdida del control de la atención. Estas clases no son excluyentes; los tres tipos de procesos pueden coexistir en situaciones complejas.

Emociones y arquitecturas

• Ejemplos de emociones primarias en humanos: Sobresaltarse por un ruido muy alto Aterrorizarse cuando una roca se te viene encima Sentir nauseas debido al un olor espantoso.

• En las emociones primarias los sensores lanzan un mecanismo de alarma reactivo que provoca cambios en los estados internos y motores.

• Versiones simples ocurren incluso en insectos

• En los humanos a veces se acompañan de procesos más sofisticados de tipo secundario o terciario.

Emociones primarias

• Ejemplos, cuando tú: Tienes miedo de que el puente que estás cruzando se caiga Te sientes aliviado al llegar al otro extremo Estás preocupado por lo que debes de decir en una entrevista Estás indeciso sobre si anular o no las vacaciones o no Disfrutas de las perspectivas de éxito del esfuerzo.

• Las emociones secundarias se generan por pensamientos que tienen que ver lo que podría pasar, lo que podría haber pasado, mientras que las primarias se generan por hechos actuales.

• Requieren por tanto de capacidades deliberativas.

Emociones secundarias

•Ejemplos: tú estás, •Encaprichado por alguien que acabas de conocer •Abrumado por la pena •Abrumado por la culpa por haber traicionado a un amigo •Obsesionado por los celos que te provoca el éxito de tu colega.

• Implican una interrupción de los proceso de auto-monitorización y auto-control: se pierde el control del los procesos de pensamiento.

• Una arquitectura que las quiera tener en cuenta ha de permitir interrupciones o modulaciones de este tipo.

Emociones terciarias

Reconocer emociones

Los ordenadores sin emociones no son creativos ni inteligentes. Pero: un ordenador emocional ¿podría llegar a ser peligroso? • Un ordenador enfadado ¿podría actuar contra nosotros? •Un ordenador capaz de influenciar nuestras emociones ¿nos podría “lavar el cerebro”? Una posible solución: darles capacidades emocionales pero asegurándose de que las emociones son siempre visibles.

Cuestiones éticas

Aplicaciones Kismet (C. Breazel) • Uso de una cabeza robótica humanoide que expresa

emociones para estudiar: – El efecto de las emociones en la IPO – Aprendizaje de comportamientos sociales de los robots durante

juegos entre humanos y robots