The perception of emotion in artificial agents

Given recent technological developments in robotics, artificial intelligence and virtual reality, it is perhaps unsurprising that the arrival of emotionally expressive and reactive artificial agents is imminent. However, if such agents are to become integrated into our social milieu, it is imperative to establish an understanding of whether and how humans perceive emotion in artificial agents. In this review, we incorporate recent findings from social robotics, virtual reality, psychology, and neuroscience to examine how people recognize and respond to emotions displayed by artificial agents. First, we review how people perceive emotions expressed by an artificial agent, such as facial and bodily expressions and vocal tone. Second, we evaluate the similarities and differences in the consequences of perceived emotions in artificial compared to human agents. Besides accurately recognizing the emotional state of an artificial agent, it is critical to understand how humans respond to those emotions. Does interacting with an angry robot induce the same responses in people as interacting with an angry person? Similarly, does watching a robot rejoice when it wins a game elicit similar feelings of elation in the human observer? Here we provide an overview of the current state of emotion expression and perception in social robotics, as well as a clear articulation of the challenges and guiding principles to be addressed as we move ever closer to truly emotional artificial agents

Emotional design and human-robot interaction

Recent years have shown an increase in the importance of emotions applied to the Design field - Emotional Design. In this sense, the emotional design aims to elicit (e.g., pleasure) or prevent (e.g., displeasure) determined emotions, during human product interaction. That is, the emotional design regulates the emotional interaction between the individual and the product (e.g., robot). Robot design has been a growing area whereby robots are interacting directly with humans in which emotions are essential in the interaction. Therefore, this paper aims, through a non-systematic literature review, to explore the application of emotional design, particularly on Human-Robot Interaction. Robot design features (e.g., appearance, expressing emotions and spatial distance) that affect emotional design are introduced. The chapter ends with a discussion and a conclusion.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Adding Semantic Web Knowledge to Intelligent Personal Assistant Agents

Intelligent Personal Assistant (IPA) agents are software agents which assist users in performing specific tasks. They should be able to communicate, cooperate, discuss, and guide people. This paper presentsa proposal to add Semantic Web Knowledge to IPA agents. In our solution,the IPA agent has a modular knowledge organization composed by four differentiated areas: (i) the rational area, which adds semantic webknowledge, (ii) the association area, which simplifies building appropriate responses, (iii) the commonsense area, which provides common sense responses, and (iv) the behavioral area, which allows IPA agents to show empathy. Our main objective is to create more intelligent and more humana alike IPA agents, enhancing the current abilities that these software agents provide

Technology and Autism Spectrum Disorders

This meta-synthesis of empirical and non-empirical literature reviewed 43 journal articles that evaluated the availability and use of technology to educate and socialize learners with Autism Spectrum Disorder or Aspersers Disorder. Students with these disorders cannot be defined or categorized each individual is unique and elegant; challenging caregiver's and educator's creativity to teach and guide them toward a quality of life they would not find on their own. There are tools and research to support unique education on many levels of learning from academics to socialization. The literature indicates that while there is a wealth of technology available and new technology is constantly being developed cost can not only prohibit production it can lessen the quality. What gets into the classroom tool box is determined by the tenacity of the educator

Perceptions and Strategies for Developing Social Competence in Children With ASD and Down Syndrome

This qualitative research project sought to explore discrepancies between research-informed ideal strategies recommended by resource teachers (RTs) and actual strategies used by early childhood educators (ECEs) in a classroom in the Niagara region in Ontario. The exploratory research involved semi-structured individual interviews with 3 RTs and 1 ECE from the Niagara region childcare centres and organizations who participated in semi-structured individual interviews. This study identified strategies recommended by RTs and ECEs to improve social competency in children with ASD and Down syndrome. The finding of this study revealed that although the RTs’ recommended strategies were very similar to research-informed strategies found in the literature, the ECEs’ strategies differed from the ideal strategies. Some of the reasons reported by the ECEs as to why they used different strategies included teacher–child ratio, lack of professional training, and lack of relevant courses taken in college. Although it is essential that children with ASD and children with Down syndrome work on their peerrelationship skills (as it is their major impairment), it is equally important to address joint attention, communication, and emotion recognition skills, and to learn to follow classroom rules and a routine in order for school readiness. Developing these skills in early childhood is closely related to developing peer-relationship skills later on