Category: News
Human-computer interaction hasn’t changed much since the advent of the mouse. Voice recognition is still patchy at best, and it can be intrusive and slower than using a keyboard. Touch screens are becoming more popular, but they could also be considered merely an evolution of the mouse that we have had for so long.
A researcher is working on something new. Tech types among you will be most interested in his work with gaze and gesture recognition that he has harnessed to allow a user to interact with a PowerPoint presentation and highlight text with their eyes alone. However psych types will be more interested in what he is working on now.
Imagine a computer that can recognise your emotions. Well that is his goal. And while this could be put into use in all sorts of areas, the most interesting to me is the potential application to support people With autism, as mentioned briefly in the article. Autistic people have an impaired ability to recognize emotions in others, they are unable to pick up on facial cues. This can lead to great social and developmental problems. The new research, if successful, could be harnessed to provide immediate recognition of emotions of the people around the user, providing them with real-time feedback.
Definately interesting research!
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-03-human-cues-user-friendliness.html
