Machine Understanding of Human Behavior

A widely accepted prediction is that computing will move to the background, weaving itself into the fabric of our everyday living spaces and projecting the human user into the foreground. If this prediction is to come true, then next generation computing, which we will call human computing, should be about anticipatory user interfaces that should be human-centered, built for humans based on human models. They should transcend the traditional keyboard and mouse to include natural, human-like interactive functions including understanding and emulating certain human behaviors such as affective and social signaling. This article discusses a number of components of human behavior, how they might be integrated into computers, and how far we are from realizing the front end of human computing, that is, how far are we from enabling computers to understand human behavior

Affect and believability in game characters:a review of the use of affective computing in games

Virtual agents are important in many digital environments. Designing a character that highly engages users in terms of interaction is an intricate task constrained by many requirements. One aspect that has gained more attention recently is the effective dimension of the agent. Several studies have addressed the possibility of developing an affect-aware system for a better user experience. Particularly in games, including emotional and social features in NPCs adds depth to the characters, enriches interaction possibilities, and combined with the basic level of competence, creates a more appealing game. Design requirements for emotionally intelligent NPCs differ from general autonomous agents with the main goal being a stronger player-agent relationship as opposed to problem solving and goal assessment. Nevertheless, deploying an affective module into NPCs adds to the complexity of the architecture and constraints. In addition, using such composite NPC in games seems beyond current technology, despite some brave attempts. However, a MARPO-type modular architecture would seem a useful starting point for adding emotions

Unburdening the Undue Burden Standard: Orienting \u3ci\u3eCasey\u3c/i\u3e in Constitutional Jurisprudence

Liberty finds no refuge in a jurisprudence of doubt. With these words in the 1992 case, Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the Supreme Court ushered in a new era of abortion regulation. Speaking through a joint opinion authored by Justices O\u27Connor, Kennedy, and Souter, the Court indicated that from this point forth abortion regulations would be judged by an undue burden standard. According to this standard, an abortion regulation is unconstitutional if it has the purpose or effect of placing a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion of a nonviable fetus. The Justices who wrote Casey were explicit in their desire to resolve the judicial debate over constitutional protection of abortion. This debate had become increasingly contentious in recent years as several Justices forcefully expressed their willingness to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision constitutionalizing abortion. Casey, however, may have the opposite effect. The joint opinion made clear that the Constitution does protect a woman\u27s right to choose abortion prior to viability of the fetus. But the extent of this protection was left in doubt as a result of the Court\u27s failure to provide methods for determining when an undue burden on abortion exists. This Note attempts to rectify this deficiency in the Casey undue burden standard by developing a new undue burden methodology based on the analytical approaches used in other areas of constitutional jurisprudence. Three approaches – the two-tiered inquiry of the dormant Commerce Clause, the content-neutral, traditional forum analysis of the First Amendment, and the endorsement test of the Establishment Clause – are especially similar to the undue burden standard outlined in Casey and can provide methods for evaluating the purpose and effect of abortion regulations

What does touch tell us about emotions in touchscreen-based gameplay?

This is the post-print version of the Article. The official published version can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2012 ACM. It is posted here by permission of ACM for your personal use. Not for redistribution.Nowadays, more and more people play games on touch-screen mobile phones. This phenomenon raises a very interesting question: does touch behaviour reflect the player’s emotional state? If possible, this would not only be a valuable evaluation indicator for game designers, but also for real-time personalization of the game experience. Psychology studies on acted touch behaviour show the existence of discriminative affective profiles. In this paper, finger-stroke features during gameplay on an iPod were extracted and their discriminative power analysed. Based on touch-behaviour, machine learning algorithms were used to build systems for automatically discriminating between four emotional states (Excited, Relaxed, Frustrated, Bored), two levels of arousal and two levels of valence. The results were very interesting reaching between 69% and 77% of correct discrimination between the four emotional states. Higher results (~89%) were obtained for discriminating between two levels of arousal and two levels of valence

Video information retrieval using objects and ostensive relevance feedback

In this paper, we present a brief overview of current approaches to video information retrieval (IR) and we highlight its limitations and drawbacks in terms of satisfying user needs. We then describe a method of incorporating object-based relevance feedback into video IR which we believe opens up new possibilities for helping users find information in video archives. Following this we describe our own work on shot retrieval from video archives which uses object detection, object-based relevance feedback and a variation of relevance feedback called ostensive RF which is particularly appropriate for this type of retrieval

Understanding vulnerability for depression from a cognitive neuroscience perspective: a reappraisal of attentional factors and a new conceptual framework

We propose a framework to understand increases in vulnerability for depression after recurrent episodes that links attention processes and schema activation to negative mood states, by integrating cognitive and neurobiological findings. Depression is characterized by a mood-congruent attentional bias at later stages of information processing. The basic idea of our framework is that decreased activity in prefrontal areas, mediated by the serotonin metabolism which the HPA axis controls, is associated with an impaired attenuation of subcortical regions, resulting in prolonged activation of the amygdala in response to stressors in the environment. Reduced prefrontal control in interaction with depressogenic schemas leads to impaired ability to exert attentional inhibitory control over negative elaborative processes such as rumination, leading in turn to sustained negative affect. These elaborative processes are triggered by the activation of negative schemas after confrontation with stressors. In our framework, attentional impairments are postulated as a crucial process in explaining the increasing vulnerability after depressive episodes, linking cognitive and biological vulnerability factors. We review the empirical data on the biological factors associated with the attentional impairments and detail how they are associated with rumination and mood regulation. The aim of our framework is to stimulate translational research

Museum Docents’ Understanding of Interpretation

This basic interpretive qualitative study explored docents’ perceptions of their interpretive role and sought to determine how those perceptions shape docents’ practice. The conceptual frameworks of hermeneutics and symbolic interactionism inform the study. The study offers a view into the world of volunteer adult educators in non-formal education settings

Why unidimensional pain measurement prevails in the pediatric acute pain context and what multidimensional self-report methods can offer

Although pain is widely recognized to be a multidimensional experience and defined as such, unidimensional pain measurement focusing on pain intensity prevails in the pediatric acute pain context. Unidimensional assessments fail to provide a comprehensive picture of a child’s pain experience and commonly do little to shape clinical interventions. The current review paper overviews the theoretical and empirical literature supporting the multidimensional nature of pediatric acute pain. Literature reporting concordance data for children’s self-reported sensory, affective and evaluative pain scores in the acute pain context has been reviewed and supports the distinct nature of these dimensions. Multidimensional acute pain measurement holds particular promise for identifying predictive markers of chronicity and may provide the basis for tailoring clinical management. The current paper has described key reasons contributing to the widespread use of unidimensional, rather than multidimensional, acute pediatric pain assessment protocols. Implications for clinical practice, education and future research are considered