128 – Rosalind Picard of MIT Media Lab – Making It So

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Affective computing and intelligence …

Dr. Rosalind Picard of MIT Media Lab 3 Dr. Rosalind Picard (bio), founder and director of the Affective Computing Research Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, and best known for creating technologies to measure and communicate emotion using face, voice, physiology, and behavior, joins hosts Pavan Bahl, Rob Sanchez and Marc Raco.

Measuring emotion, a discovery, and autistic flooding

Dr. Rosalind Picard of MIT Media Lab 5 A review of Dr. Picard’s extraordinary credentials and experience, and discussion of looking at emotion and measuring with apparel and wearables. Picard tests and provides updates on Rob’s physiological signals with an Empatica E4 device throughout the interview, talk of interpretive data, how a convergence is happening, the need to build things that look good that people want to wear that will then allow measuring of things medically significant, and to do something real. How some in the FDA wants to change and accommodate openness to things that don’t need to be medical, the storytelling needs for innovation, devices that understand emotion, an amazing story about an autistic boy that leads to a discovery, and Rob reveals compelling information about mental “flooding” due to being on the autistic spectrum.

Data from skin, emotions and creativity, and the next frontier

Picard discusses methods of gathering data that shows electrical changes on skin beyond perspiration, how that Dr. Rosalind Picard of MIT Media Lab 2 data is full of a lot of interesting info, and how use of it could head off an oncoming issue or change in emotional state. Dealing with the variable of instinct, the emotional intelligence of AI, interest of big companies of leading the AI charge, happiness predictions, how emotions can relate to problem solving, and how sadness reduces creativity. Affective interaction and computing and how Picard was instrumental in the genesis of that field, and the possible frontier of how detecting mood and changes in mood could forecast significant mood changes to prevent major depression and other issues.

Giving AI a soul, micro-expressions, and Shatner and Nimoy

Dr. Rosalind Picard of MIT Media Lab 4 A mention of work-in-progress combining Western and Eastern medicine, the importance of programming AI with a soul, valance in emotion, judging interest, micro-expressions and revealing hidden feelings, and being able to virtually build an experience and measure how it makes people feel. Opinions on face analysis predicting personality, how understanding sources of stresses could help prevent medical issues, and how much we are driven by our stomachs. Plus, considerations of women vs. men in AI programming. Off the Grid Questions covers playing in the woods, meeting William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, the partnership of Kirk and Picard, forts and making a computer see.