Affective Computing

Computers are beginning to acquire the ability to ex-press and recognize affect, and may soon be given the ability to “have emotions. ” The essential role of emotion in both human cognition and perception, as demonstrated by recent neurological studies, indi-cates that affective computers should not only pro-vide better performance in assisting humans, but also might enhance computers ’ abilities to make de-cisions. This paper presents and discusses key issues in “affective computing, ” computing that relates to, arises from, or influences emotions. Models are sug-gested for computer recognition of human emotion, and new applications are presented for computer-assisted learning, perceptual information retrieval, arts and entertainment, and human health and inter-action. Affective computing, coupled with new wear-able computers, will also provide the ability to gather new data necessary for advances in emotion and cog-nition theory