The Empathy Machine

Abstract

The Empathy Machine is an interactive installation that augments a visitor's empathic sense during a social conversation. Empathy is a key component of interpersonal interactions that is often neglected by modern communication technologies. This system uses facial expression recognition to identify the emotional state of a user's conversation partner. It algorithmically generates emotional music to match the expressive state of the partner and plays the music to the user in a non-disruptive manner. The result is an augmentation of the user's emotional response to the emotional expression of their partner.

Effects of a Personalized Fitness Recommender System Using Gamification and Continuous Player Modeling: System Design and Long-Term Validation Study

“…For instance, existing hardware for physiological measurements requires the placement of body parts (e.g., head or fingertips) to the sensors, making physiological signals such as EEG, respiration and skin conductance rather impractical and highly intrusive for most games. Modalities such as facial expression and speech could be technically plausible in future games: even though the majority of the vision-based affectdetection systems currently available cannot operate in real-time [81], the technology in this field is rapidly evolving [32]. On a positive note, recent advances in sensor technology have resulted in low-cost unobtrusive biofeedback devices appropriate for gaming applications.…”