A Northern Ireland team is leading the search for a thinking computer which can sense a user's mood.4 U1 {0 W$ t3 I
Researchers at Queen's University in Belfast hope to complete the 10m euro project for an emotion-sensitive computer within four years.& _6 |: J) a3 k9 P
The aim is to enable computers to think and behave more like humans./ h6 i# x/ l+ X# n
The European-wide project is being coordinated from the university's School of Psychology and involves 160 researchers from 27 institutions.
) M& I# m9 k5 Q7 h The university's researchers developed the proposal and negotiated the contract with the European Commission., l" ]* L" ^1 {* @1 l% r
The academics said the work would build upon attempts to create "multi-modal interfaces" which allow machines to sense and respond to the moods of the user.
5 U3 k* p6 [ E* o Programme coordinator Professor Roddy Cowie said while it sounded like science fiction, computers which responded to human emotion would emerge.
: W3 }: e1 u% v/ ] "At the moment, our use of computers is limited by the fact that we need a keyboard and a screen to access them," he said.
! v/ S# y3 J! L- n# y8 y: }" k/ N "It would make an enormous difference if we could interact with them by speaking normally - perhaps through a microphone and a transmitter in a 'Star Trek' badge.
, {% [$ l. ?, i {4 b8 G7 [ "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.. E( D0 Q' F, |$ k" i# I$ Y
"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."" `0 C9 S9 V! w3 G$ \8 }
The emotion-sensitive computer would have its own "personality" and establish a social relationship with the user. a) C% C4 K# u) ^4 k, R# y
"It's a fair bet that in 30 years' time, emotion-sensitive interfaces will be as much part of life as windows and mouse interfaces are now," said Professor Cowie.
6 G, y8 G& y) s* z' r z& ` The project team believes such computers would play a major role in teaching and learning. |