MAS.630 Affective Computing Fall 2018

Room & Time:

• E15-359 (MIT Media Lab, 20 Ames Street; Cambridge, MA)

• Wednesdays, 11am-1pm, September 5 - December 12, 2018

Contact:

To reach the course staff please email: mas630-staff at media dot mit dot edu

History

Affective Computing was birthed at the MIT Media Lab and is now an internationally recognized field that includes an IEEE journal (Transactions on Affective Computing), an international conference (see ACII 2017), and perhaps the most widely-viewed contribution: an emotion detector for Sheldon on Big Bang Theory.

Textbooks:

• Picard, R.W. (2000). Affective Computing. The MIT Press.

• Calvo, R.A., D'Mello, S.K., Gratch, J., and Kappas, A. (2015). The Oxford Handbook of Affective Computing. Oxford University Press.

• Other readings will be handed out as needed.

Topics will be adjusted based on class interests/projects. Past examples include:

• How can wearables/mobile phones recognize your mood? And, when is this desirable? (Or not?)

• How can we build technologies to predict and prevent unwanted states like anxiety or depression?

• How can technology help people better communicate with each other?

• How can your emotion be manipulated, and how might this change the prices you'll pay?

• When do people appreciate a machine (robot, agent, conversational bot) showing empathy?

• In what ways does putting your body into certain postures change your mood?

• Why is it a smart idea to have fun (yay!) before you do creative work?

• What new ethical and philosophical questions does affective technology raise?

• How can skills of emotional intelligence improve robotics and HCI?

• How does lie detection work, and when is it most reliable?