Page 151 - Socially Intelligent Agents Creating Relationships with Computers and Robots

134 Socially Intelligent Agents

Affective Social Quest (ASQ) (figure 16.1) consists of a computer, custom
software, and toy-like objects through which the child communicates to the
computer. The system synthesizes interactive social situations in order to pro-
mote the recognition of affective information. This system will not tire because
of impatience and can be a safe place for the child to explore. The goal of ASQ
is to provide an engaging environment to help children – specifically autistic
children – learn to recognize social displays of affect.
ASQ is an example of affective computing, research aimed at giving com-
puters skills of emotional intelligence, including the ability to recognize and
respond intelligently to emotion [3]. A computer can be taught to recognize
aspects of emotion expression, such as facial movements indicative of a smile,
and can prompt people for information related to human emotional state. How-
ever, computers are limited in their ability to recognize naturally occurring
emotions; they can not easily generalize patterns from one situation to the next,
nor do they understand the emotional significance associated with emotion ex-
pression. We recognize that some of the problems we face in trying to give
computers emotion recognition abilities are similar to those therapists face in
trying to help autistic children. We expect that progress in either of these areas
will help inform progress in the other.
Six emotions that show up universally with characteristic facial expressions
are: happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, and disgust [2]. ASQ uses four
of these: happiness, sadness, anger, and surprise, potentially displaying the
emotion word, icon, doll face and representative video clips. The aim is to offer
the child multiple representations for an emotion, to help him or her generalize
many ways that one emotion may be displayed.
Different approaches for behavior intervention are available for autistic chil-
dren. Many programs use emotion words and icon representations, showing
children photographs of people exhibiting emotional expressions. However,
systematic observations or experimental investigations of specific social behav-
iors are few ([1], [5], [4]). Many children with autism are drawn to computers,
and can become engaged with off-the-shelf software. Most software appli-
cations for autistics focus on verbal development, object matching, or event
sequencing. Laurette software is designed for autistic children to solve ‘what
if’ scenarios and help them decide what the next action in a sequence could
be. Mayer-Johnson has a "board maker" software tool that combines words
with its standardized icons (Picture Communication Symbols (PCS)), to help
children communicate through pictures (http://www.mayerjohnson.com/).
The ASQ system builds on the strengths of autistic children’s visual systems
through use of video. Additionally, it incorporates characteristics of the inter-
vention methods listed earlier. The potential for using affective computing and
physical interfaces in therapy forms the heart of this work.