Page 28 - Socially Intelligent Agents Creating Relationships with Computers and Robots

Creating Relationships with Computers and Robots 11

Chapter 16 discusses how an interactive computer system can be used in
emotion recognition therapy for children with autism. Katharine Blocher and
Rosalind W. Picard developed and tested a system called Affective Social Quest
(ASQ). The system includes computer software as well as toy-like ‘agents’, i.e.
stuffed dolls that serve as haptic interfaces through which the child interacts
with the computer. This approach therefore nicely bridges the gap between the
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world of software and the embodied world of physical objects . Practitioners
can configure ASQ for individual children, an important requirement for the
usage of computer technology in therapy. Evaluations tested how well chil-
dren with autism could match emotional expressions shown on the computer
screen with emotions represented by the dolls. Results of the evaluations are
encouraging. However, and as it is the case for all three chapters in this book
on autism therapy, the authors suggest that long-term studies are necessary in
order to provide more conclusive results with regard to how interactive systems
can be used in autism therapy.
In chapter 17 Stacy C. Marsella describes how socially intelligent animated
virtual agents are used to create an ‘interactive drama’. The drama called Car-
men’s Bright IDEAS has clear therapeutic goals: the particular application area
is therapeutic counseling, namely assisting mothers whose children undergo
cancer treatment in social problem solving skills. The interactive pedagogical
drama involves two characters, the counselor Gina, and Carmen who repre-
sents the mother of a pediatric cancer patient. The user (learner) interacts with
Gina and Carmen and it is hoped that these interactions provide a therapeutic
effect. Important issues in this work are the creation of believable characters
and a believable story. In order to influence the user, the system needs to en-
gage the user sufficiently so that she truly empathizes with the characters. The
system faces a very demanding audience, very different e.g. from virtual dra-
mas enacted in game software, but if successful it could make an important
contribution to the quality of life of people involved.

2.5 Socially Intelligent Robots

Embodied socially intelligent robots open up a wide variety of potential ap-
plications for social agent technology. Robots that express emotion and can
cooperate with humans may serve, for example, as toys, service robots, mo-
bile tour guides, and other advice givers. But in addition to offering practical
applications for social agent technology, social robots also constitute power-
ful tools to investigate cognitive mechanisms underlying social intelligence.
The first three chapters of this section propose robotic platforms that embed
some of the cognitive mechanisms required to develop social intelligence and
to achieve socially competent interactions with humans, while the fourth one is
primarily concerned with understanding human response to “perceived” social