Towards new Realms of Human Computer Interaction Using Affective Computing and Persuasive Technology

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The proposed research program explores two novel ideas in the realm of Human Computer Interaction (HCI): Affective Computing and Persuasive Technology. These paradigms consider the bi-directional communication of emotions between humans and computers during interaction. Hence, they involve giving computers emotional intelligence and persuasive abilities, two attributes that were previously reserved for humans. ***Affective computing methods are aimed at allowing computers to appreciate and respond not only to traditional inputs, but also to users' affects. (Note that affect refers to the experience of feeling or emotion.) In fact, the field has a wide scope and is concerned with the recognition, interpretation, response and simulation of human affects by computers. ***We propose the development of affect recognition methods that involve the analysis of several modalities of information that can be inferred from audio visual sensors. As opposed to previous works, we intend to use physiological information extracted from a video signal in our analysis. We hypothesise that this approach will increase the accuracy of affect recognition using audio visual sensors.***Also, we propose the use of the affect recognition methods that will be developed in the evaluation of the HCI quality. Hence, we intend to develop a usability inspection framework that supports the empirical measurement of emotions evoked through HCI. This would allow interaction designers to more easily identify problematic areas that provoke users' negative emotions.***Persuasive technologies are concerned with the use of computers to change how users think and behave. Their goal is to entice humans to positively change their attitudes through social influence as a result of human-computer interaction. ***We propose to integrate persuasive concepts within gaming applications. In particular, we are interested in the dynamic modulation of gaming scenarios to efficiently present persuasive contents while considering the user's affective status and environmental context. The user's affective status can reflect her/his level of response to a particular persuasive strategy. ***The long-term goal of this research is to attain an evolved relationship between humans and computers that mimics some of the social characteristics reserved for inter-human exchanges. The short-term objectives can be summarized as follows:***• Develop multi-modal mechanisms to effectively detect affective information through audio-video capture without relying on bio-sensors. ***• Devise methods for empirical usability testing using affective information and develop a complete framework to support such form of evaluation.***• Conceive persuasive games that can be dynamically adapted to gamers' affective state and context by modulating the gaming scenario.**