Empathic surroundings

In his new book (2007), Marvin Minsky states that Artificial Intelligence (AI) needs empathy to become truly smart, as is illustrated through human-human interaction. The latter also holds for Virtual Reality (VR), where the interest increases to unravel the emotional state of users has to be processed by the environment and adequate reactions has to be generated. Humans themselves process implicit signals of emotion through physiological signals in addition to text and speech. These signals can be traced through (grids of) sensors. This can help us in unraveling emotions. However, real time processing of these signals, needed for closed loop interaction between human-system/surrounding is complex. An overview is provided of physiological signals that can be used, their advantages and drawbacks, and their applications. All has to be taken into account when aiming at a new area of virtual reality