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Image modeling and content based retrieval systems
Rosalind Picard was a major figure in computer systems. She worked on the beginning systems for technology to "learn" how to pull greater patterns and mathematical models. This development allowed for faster, more accurate computing, a stepping stone for what we now use in smartphones and computers. -
Sentograph
The Sentograph, created by Manfred Clynes, was a machine that studied a human's emotions based of their movement and pressure from the hand on a immovable button. This technology was converted into music, to convey the emotion through non-verbal cues.
http://research.cs.queensu.ca/home/roel/publications/ICMC95Sento.html -
Affective Computing
The term Affective Computing was born through a thought piece by Picard that outlined the possibility for technology to read and respond to human emotion, The term also opened the opportunity for greater research on how emotion is impacted by technology -
Foundation of Picard's group at MIT Media Lab
Picard's group strived to research and develop technological advancement through a multidisciplinary approach. Their research took into consideration multiple fields along with computer science such as psychology, anthropology, neuroscience, sociology, and education. This group pioneered the beginning of affective computing -
Quick
Quick was the first game to incorporate biofeedback through a glove called the galvactivator which mapped pressure signals associated with arousal to have the game character jump back when detecting shock by the user. "Increases in skin conductivity tend to be good indicators of physiological arousal --- causing the galvactivator display to glow brightly,"
https://www.media.mit.edu/publications/the-galvactivator-a-glove-that-senses-and-communicates-skin-conductivity-2/ -
The death of Clippy
Clippy was a feature in Microsoft Office that would randomly appear and offer assistance to users. The feature failed, as it was not able to detect when to appear, and what to help with as it did not have the ability to detect emotion. -
Self driving cars
There have been many advancements to driver assist cars I the last 5 years, with features such as lane detect and smart cruise control, there aren't many steps between where we are now and fully self driving cars. -
Emotion detection in smartphones
The assistant features and face mapping technology is already present in smartphones, it just hasn't been put together yet. In the future, I think facial mapping and expression detection will be used to curate the assistance features in phones such as Siri and Google Assistant to appear when frustration is detected.
