Grounding Emotions in Adaptive Systems
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Alastair Burt
burt@dfki.de
DFKI, Stuhlsatzenhausweg 3,
66123 Saarbrücken, Germany
Research Into Emotionally Intelligent Agents
Recent trends within several distinct disciplines share a common
theme.
Trends in Artificial Intelligence
Traditionally researchers in artificial intelligence have concentrated
on correctness as a criterion by which to judge their programs. A
typical problem has been, how does a rational agent derive a correct
sequence of actions to achieve a goal. Increasingly the emphasis is
shifting to utility as a more important criterion. How does an agent,
for example, derive a plan that makes optimum use of its limited
resources and how much resources should be devoted to the planning
itself.
Trends in User Interfaces
There are two major trends in this area that are related to
emotions. First, there is a concern for the emotional state of
computer users. Natural communication between people involves many
verbal and non-verbal cues that convey the affective state of the
participant. Computers have traditionally been blind to such cues but
recent techniques, under the name of affecti ve computing, have tried
to capture them. The aim is to make the computer more responsive to
the user as well as trying to convey some of the emotional content
that is normally lost in computer-mediated communication.
The second major trend is the use of lifelike characters in the user
interface. These are found in a variety of guises: as characters in
games, as user representatives in chat programs, and as a means to
personalise online help. One of the most important aspects to creating
the illusion of life in the characters is imbuing them with a
convincing emotional model. The synthetic emotions of the character
should be conveyed in its actions and gestures and the characters to
should react appropriately to the affective content of input from the
user.
Trends in Psychology
Recently the field of evolutionary psychology has come to stress the
role of mental functionality in helping an organism adapt to its
evolutionary niche. In this light emotions are not seen as an
interesting by-product of other behaviour but have come to be seen as
vital means by which an organism thinks and acts in a flexible
fashion. In corroboration of such ideas neuropsychologists have
documented cases where their patients have severe problems coping with
life when they are too ``rational'' and insufficiently ``emotional''.
Trends in Cognitive Science
Some argue that the time is ripe to
develop an overarching unified cognitive architecture. Given the
comments above on trends in psychology it is natural to ask how models
of emotions can lead to flexible direction of mental resources in such
architectures.
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Last modified: Mon Jun 29 15:44:29 MET DST 1998