Surprises at the Intersection of Human Emotion and Wearable Tech
How will our future computers, robots and smartphones get the emotional intelligence they need to be truly useful? This talk highlights the adventures behind some of the world's first technologies that recognize human emotion. Researcher and author Rosalind W. Picard will share surprises from her team’s journey, including discovering that webcams can be used to track heart-rate; enabling smartphones -- even without sensors -- to read heart-rate and respiration; and finding electrical signals on the wrist that can help us understand deep brain activity. She will also share the team’s unexpected findings about the power of wearable technologies to help treat autism, anxiety, depression, epilepsy and more.
Picard is the founder and director of the Affective Computing Research Group at the MIT Media Laboratory and a pioneer in the field of human-computer interaction. She is also co-founder of two technology companies-- Empatica and Affectiva. Her inventions were recognized by the New York Times Magazine Best Ideas List in 2006 and in 2011’s Popular Science Top Ten Inventions. Practical applications of Picard’s work include improving driver safety, helping people manage stress, improving seizure detection, and enhancing customer experience.
How will our future computers, robots and smartphones get the emotional intelligence they need to be truly useful? This talk highlights the adventures behind some of the world's first technologies that recognize human emotion. Researcher and author Rosalind W. Picard shared surprises from her team’s journey, including discovering that webcams can be used to track heart-rate; enabling smartphones -- even without sensors -- to read heart-rate and respiration; and finding electrical signals on the wrist that can help us understand deep brain activity. She also shared the team’s unexpected findings about the power of wearable technologies to help treat autism, anxiety, depression, epilepsy and more.
Rosalind W. Picard is the founder and director of the Affective Computing Research Group at the MIT Media Laboratory and a pioneer in the field of human-computer interaction. She is also co-founder of two technology companies-- Empatica and Affectiva. Her inventions were recognized by the New York Times Magazine Best Ideas List in 2006 and in 2011’s Popular Science Top Ten Inventions. Practical applications of Picard’s work include improving driver safety, helping people manage stress, improving seizure detection, and enhancing customer experience.
Generous underwriting from Thornburg Investment Management, with additional support from The Lensic Performing Arts Center, makes this series possible.