Friendly computer

1996/07/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Adimen artifiziala

In our communication with computers there is a big obstacle. They have no sensitivity to the emotion or emotion we may have, but it seems that they will soon realize our feelings and give us a proper response.

The current situation, however, is very different. Computers are blind, dumb and deaf. Ignorance of the management of people or animals. We, however, have long known that kindness is important in any human communication. For example, studies with usual psychological methods have shown very interesting results. We all have an unnoticed tendency to communicate human feelings to the computer. We are kind to the machine, but if we insist that we have made a mistake, we get to hurt the computer. However, when the machine congratulates us we are proud and the researchers claim that the use of the award by the computer allows to obtain very positive conclusions in pedagogical programs or spell checkers.

Therefore, since multimedia computers are penetrating our schools and homes, it would be interesting that the machine also had a bit of “sensitivity”. For this purpose, facial recognition, emotion analysis, voice recognition and word synthesis tools could be used. Currently it is experimenting mainly with the first two tools for the computer to “understand” what the user wants.

In one of the trials they use so-called smart rooms, that is, microcomputers and cameras to interpret human behavior. Real-time system with three-dimensional references of head, hands and legs. The system has a “holography” of the person, which includes the faces and gestures of the person. Therefore, users are related to the computer without keyboards or virtual helmets.

Another test is to know the user's face. the camera above the computer takes the image of the user's face and compares it to the one in the data bank. You can then call the user by name. Another system knows the user's face by analyzing the heat emitted by the different parts of it. This heat emission is altered when we change our face. So when the machine detects that we have an uncertain face, are you sure you have understood it? will ask us.

The computer that knows the face of the person can be used in many applications. If you see that we are stressed, it can make us hear serene music, if we drive tired in the car, it can cause alarm, etc.