Pressing the right buttons: taking the viewer there

Abstract

Theory and research presented in a special issue of Interacting with Computers (Vol. 14) on affective-computing is concerned with the way in which computer interfaces could be better designed to meet emotional needs. This commentary on the special issue suggests that traditional media, such as film and television, may also meet some emotional needs and further proposes that the concept of presence (the subjective sense of 'being there' in a mediated environment) has some explanatory power when considering emotional responses to media. In particular, it is argued that advanced broadcast systems (e.g. interactive and immersive television) may provide increased opportunities for affective-computing and experiences of presence in the home. Applications of research in both fields could be used to improve and extend the use of advanced broadcast systems and other media in that techniques used to enhance presence and improve human -computer interactions may be used to address emotional needs in novel ways using familiar media. q

Models for Computational Emotions from Psychological Theories Using Type I Fuzzy Logic

“…1 outlines, his nine basic emotions are divided into three groups: those associated with the removal of positive stimulus; those associated with the application of negative stimulus; and, those associated with the conceptual combination of applied positive stimulus and removed negative stimulus. Listing these respectively, and subsequently in order of implied intensity, these emotions are as follows: (1) Annoyance, (2) Anger, (3) Rage, (4) Apprehension, (5) Anxiety, (6) Terror, (7) Pleasure, (8) Elation, (9) Ecstasy. Looking at Millenson's model from a process sense and perspective, it fundamentally associates a given event with a composite of adding or removing two stimuli and their value impact.…”

“…This work has varied in scope from the philosophical questions about why and how to make an emotional agent [4][5][6][7], to the sociological questions about what impact emotional agents have on human-computer interactions [2,[8][9][10].…”

Affective computing in the era of contemporary neurophysiology and health informatics

“…Knowledge drawn from the wide application of home care technologies could possibly be extended to meet the above types of needs, and allow for more flexible EEG/MEG devices 1 that will in turn be used in the interface evaluation, but more importantly will open new avenues for affective computing and HCI. In the future, such two-way communication systems (Dillon et al, 2004) would mean that user feedback could be not only be collected unobtrusively, as suggested by Scheirer et al (2002), but also directly linked with user emotions, and also synchronised with information about system failures and associated viewer behaviours.…”

Doing to Be: Multiple Routes to Affective Interaction

“…The next commentary by Dillon et al (2004) extends the opportunities for manipulating users' emotions by taking the discussion beyond textual language to the emerging new media of interactive television, which is already at an advanced stage in availability and usage in the UK. New feelings of immersive presence become possible in these new digital environments.…”