top » information technology » artificial intelligence » types of artificial intelligence » affective computing

What is Affective Computing?

John Spacey, updated on October 25, 2016

Affective computing is a type of artificial intelligence that seeks to understand and use emotion. It is the machine equivalent of emotional intelligence in humans. Affective computing has numerous applications related to improving computer-human interactions and interpreting human actions and behaviors.

Artificial intelligence can potentially detect human emotions using cues such as facial expressions, tone of voice, word usage or other inputs such as the way someone is typing or their body temperature. As with any powerful tool, this has potential to improve quality of life or make it worse depending on how it is applied and governed. Affective computing has broad privacy implications as your toaster could theoretically record your emotions and make this information available to companies and/or governments. Alternatively, emotions could be unrecorded and simply used to improve user interfaces such as a synthetic voice that can reflect a range of emotions in its tone.

Overview: Affective Computing
Type	Artificial Intelligence
Definition	Artificial intelligence that seeks to understand and use emotion.
Value	Improving user interfaces. Interpreting human activities and intentions.
Risks	Privacy risks related to recording of emotions. Potential for invasive technologies that serve to limit freedom of thought and expression.
Related Concepts	Privacy Expectation Of Privacy Creeping Normality Emotional Intelligence