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24/03/2004
Project aims to make computers 'emotional'
A Europe-wide project to enable computers to think, behave and respond to the users' moods has got under way.
The 10-million-euro, four-year project is being coordinated from the School of Psychology at Queen's University Belfast, and will build upon ground-breaking work already carried out there to create "multi-modal interfaces" which allow machines to sense and respond to the moods of the user.
The "HUMAINE" project pulls together leaders in the area from 27 institutions across Europe, and will involve about 160 researchers. Funding is being provided on a 50-50 basis by the European Commission and the partners. Researchers from Queen's developed the proposal, negotiated the contract with the EC, and are now leading the project.
Project coordinator Professor Roddy Cowie said: "Computers that respond to human emotion may sound like science fiction, but they are bound to come.
"At the moment, our use of computers is limited by the fact that we need a keyboard and a screen to access them. It would make an enormous difference if we could interact with them by speaking normally - perhaps though a microphone and a transmitter in a 'Star Trek' badge. But emotion is part of normal speech, and experience has shown that most users are deeply uncomfortable with speech interfaces that ignore it - too uncomfortable to use them very much.
"If we can make computers more intuitive and expressive, and also less challenging to use, there is enormous potential to let people make fuller use of information technology."
The project is part of the EU's Sixth Framework Programme to enable European science and technology to challenge world leaders in key areas. "Networks of excellence" bring together most of Europe's top expertise on a topic of particular importance, and weld them into a world-class research community. Contracts for the first networks of excellence, including HUMAINE, were signed in December.
The first plenary meeting of HUMAINE took place this month at the German national institute for research into artificial intelligence in Saarbrucken. Over 80 network members attended, along with representatives from other European projects dealing with related topics.
(MB)
The 10-million-euro, four-year project is being coordinated from the School of Psychology at Queen's University Belfast, and will build upon ground-breaking work already carried out there to create "multi-modal interfaces" which allow machines to sense and respond to the moods of the user.
The "HUMAINE" project pulls together leaders in the area from 27 institutions across Europe, and will involve about 160 researchers. Funding is being provided on a 50-50 basis by the European Commission and the partners. Researchers from Queen's developed the proposal, negotiated the contract with the EC, and are now leading the project.
Project coordinator Professor Roddy Cowie said: "Computers that respond to human emotion may sound like science fiction, but they are bound to come.
"At the moment, our use of computers is limited by the fact that we need a keyboard and a screen to access them. It would make an enormous difference if we could interact with them by speaking normally - perhaps though a microphone and a transmitter in a 'Star Trek' badge. But emotion is part of normal speech, and experience has shown that most users are deeply uncomfortable with speech interfaces that ignore it - too uncomfortable to use them very much.
"If we can make computers more intuitive and expressive, and also less challenging to use, there is enormous potential to let people make fuller use of information technology."
The project is part of the EU's Sixth Framework Programme to enable European science and technology to challenge world leaders in key areas. "Networks of excellence" bring together most of Europe's top expertise on a topic of particular importance, and weld them into a world-class research community. Contracts for the first networks of excellence, including HUMAINE, were signed in December.
The first plenary meeting of HUMAINE took place this month at the German national institute for research into artificial intelligence in Saarbrucken. Over 80 network members attended, along with representatives from other European projects dealing with related topics.
(MB)
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