Affective Computing [Paperback]

Rosalind W. Picard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 31, 2000 | ISBN-10: 0262661152 | ISBN-13: 978-0262661157 | Edition: 1st

The latest scientific findings indicate that emotions play an essential role in decision making, perception, learning, and more--that is, they influence the very mechanisms of rational thinking. Not only too much, but too little emotion can impair decision making. According to Rosalind Picard, if we want computers to be genuinely intelligent and to interact naturally with us, we must give computers the ability to recognize, understand, even to have and express emotions.Part 1 of this book provides the intellectual framework for affective computing. It includes background on human emotions, requirements for emotionally intelligent computers, applications of affective computing, and moral and social questions raised by the technology. Part 2 discusses the design and construction of affective computers. Although this material is more technical than that in Part 1, the author has kept it less technical than typical scientific publications in order to make it accessible to newcomers. Topics in Part 2 include signal-based representations of emotions, human affect recognition as a pattern recognition and learning problem, recent and ongoing efforts to build models of emotion for synthesizing emotions in computers, and the new application area of affective wearable computers.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

As a scientist who works in computer development, Rosalind Picard is accustomed to working with what is rational and logical. But in her research on how to enable computers to better perceive the world, she discovered something surprising: In the human brain, a critical part of our ability to see and perceive is not logical, but emotional. Therefore, for computers to have some of the advanced abilities we desire, it may be necessary that they comprehend and, in some cases, feel emotions. Affective Computing isn't about making PCs that get grumpy when you enter repeated errors or that may react out of fear like 2001's Hal or The Terminator's SkyNet; it's about incorporating emotional competencies that allow computers to better perform their jobs. On the simplest level, this may mean installing sensors and programming that simply allow a computerized system to determine the emotional state of its user and respond accordingly. The book also mentions options such as the ability to include emotional content in computer-moderated communications that work far better than today's emoticons.

The first part of Picard's book introduces the theoretical foundations and principles of affective computing in a thoroughly nontechnical manner. She explores why feelings may soon become part of computing technology and discusses the advantages and the concerns of such a development. Picard raises a number of ethical issues, including the potential for misleading users into thinking they're communicating with another human and the need to incorporate responsible behavior into affective computer programming, along the lines of Isaac Asimov's famous three laws of robotics. In part 2, the book becomes more technical, although it is still within the comprehension of most laypeople. This section discusses how computers might be designed, constructed, and programmed to allow them to recognize, express, and even have emotions. This book is a solid scientific introduction to a subject that seems like a doorway into science fiction. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Compelling.... Picard convincingly demonstrates that computers can also be designed to think about feelings and how to rationally act in light of them.... A groundbreaking preface to a plausible direction in computer design." Norman Weinstein, Technology Review

"Today's computers are cold, logical machines. They needn't be. In thisimportant book, Rosalind Picard presents a compelling image, not only ofhow machines might come to have emotions, but why they must. Emotions: notjust for animals and people." Donald A. Norman , Hewlett-Packard; Professor Emeritus, CognitiveScience, University of California, San Diego; Author of Things that makeus smart

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press; 1st edition (July 31, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262661152
• ISBN-13: 978-0262661157
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #851,760 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Wearable computers can respond intelligently to your mood, January 5, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Affective Computing (Hardcover)

Most of this book is a primer for non-clinicians on what is meant by 'human emotions', and how a computer in physical contact with someone could identify that person's mood and respond appropriately to it. Picard makes her case that 'emotional intelligence' would be a useful attribute for software. A human who loses the ability to feel emotions becomes, not admirably logical like Mr. Spock, but unable to make quick, simple, arbitrary decisions and prone to repeat mistakes. Just like most software today. Picard relates the use of affective computing primarily to the 'wearable computers' that researchers at MIT have been playing with for over 10 years to do mostly trivial functions like take photographs and generate muzak. There wasn't much here for those of us who have to interact through keyboards/mice and monitors, and surprisingly no attempt to connect affective computing with related techniques such as fuzzy logic. There is an excellent source reference list at the back.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting book - Very interesting area., May 16, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Affective Computing (Paperback)

This is an interesting book, and I strongly agree with Picard's assertion that computers ought to be able to "recognize" and respond to human emotions. She does an excellent job of making and supporting this point. The other part of her thesis, that computers themselves should have "emotions" is much less clear. She never seemed to adequately make the case that a computer with its own emotions would be of any significant value for anything, and frankly I can't think of any useful applications for such an ability. Some sort of emotional component may be needed to fully support and achieve AI (and she makes this point) but in terms of sort of the standard user interface types of applications it's hard to imagine how such a capability could be useful.

Anyway, good book on a very interesting topic.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The missing ingredient for true artificial intelligence, May 19, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Affective Computing (Hardcover)

A fascinating book with many implications for the fields of artifical intelligence and human-computer interaction. Picard provides a rich background on modern research in emotion and puts forth compelling arguments for the need to incorporate affective abilities in computers as, perhaps, the only way to allow them to respond intelligently to their environment and make rational decisions. An entertaining and mind-opening read.