Associate Professor of Media Technology Rosalind Picard will deliver the next Perspectives lecture at the Media Laboratory, titled "Affective Computing," on Tuesday, Nov. 10 from 5-6pm in Bartos Theater (Building E15).
New research is giving computers the ability to recognize, express, and in some cases "have" emotions. The emphasis is on emotional intelligence, which can be more important than traditional mathematical and verbal skills in developing computers that are truly responsive to people. The talk by Professor Picard (the NEC Development Professor of Computers and Communications) will focus on recent efforts to enable computers to recognize human expressions of interest, frustration and confusion, and will include examples of "affective wearable computers" that assist us in learning about emotion.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on November 4, 1998.