Physically-animated Visual Display

• US 20090319459A1
• Filed: 02/20/2009
• Published: 12/24/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/20/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Original Assignee: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Inventors: Picard, Rosalind Wright, Hoffman, Guy, Breazeal, Cynthia Lynn, Ahn, Hyungil
• Application Number:
  US12/390,405
• Publication Number:
  US 20090319459A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 706/46
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 3/004 Artificial life, i.e. computing arrangements simulating life
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/20 Movements or behaviour, e.g. gesture recognition recognition of facial expressions G06V40/16

Abstract

A physically animated visual display is a robotic device, capable of multiple degree-of-freedom motion, that is adapted to improve a user'"'"'s emotional state, cognitive performance, and comfort level through reactive and goal-directed manipulation of the position of the display. The affective-cognitive system comprises a feature extraction subsystem for deriving physical information about a user from data obtained from sensors, a perception subsystem for processing the data in order to determine the user'"'"'s current emotional state, affective-cognitive state, or posture, an action selection subsystem for determining an action to be taken in response, and a motor system for physically animating the robotic device in accordance with the determined action. The system may include feedback modeling based on a reaction of the user to the movement of the apparatus increasing or decreasing the probability of choosing the current behavior based on the user'"'"'s reaction.

Claims

1. A physically-animated apparatus for improving a user'"'"'s current attention, cognitive performance, or emotional state, comprising:

a robotic device capable of multiple degree-of-freedom motion; and

an affective-cognitive system, comprising;

a feature extraction subsystem, adapted for deriving physical information about a user from data obtained from at least one device configured for sensing current physical state data about the user;

a perception subsystem, adapted for processing the physical information received from the feature extraction subsystem in order to determine the user'"'"'s current emotional or affective-cognitive state;

an action selection subsystem, adapted for determining an action to be taken in response to the determined emotional or affective-cognitive state; and

a motor system, the motor system comprising at least one device adapted to physically animate the robotic device in accordance with the determined action.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the action selection subsystem is further adapted for feedback modeling based on a reaction of the user to the movement of the apparatus.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising at least one of a graphical display or an audio output.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising at least one seat sensor, blue eyes camera, stereo camera, or microphone.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the physical state data comprises at least one of facial expression, head pose, posture movement, biometric sensor measures, hand pressure on a computer mouse, and task performance measures.

6. An apparatus for improving a user'"'"'s physical comfort level, comprising:

a robotic device capable of multiple degree-of-freedom motion; and

an affective-cognitive system, comprising;

a feature extraction subsystem, adapted for deriving physical information about a user from data obtained from at least one device configured for sensing current physical state data about the user;

a perception subsystem, adapted for processing the physical information received from the feature extraction subsystem in order to determine the user'"'"'s current posture;

an action selection subsystem, adapted for determining an action to be taken in response to the determined posture and a set of user postural and movement goals; and

a motor system, the motor system comprising at least one device adapted to physically animate the robotic device in accordance with the determined action.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the action selection subsystem is further adapted for feedback modeling based on a reaction of the user to the movement of the apparatus.

8. A method for improving a user'"'"'s attention, emotional state, cognitive-affective state, or posture, comprising the steps of:

detecting the user'"'"'s identity;

monitoring the user'"'"'s current affective state;

if the user is in a non-neutral affective state, determining whether the user is bored, distracted, blinking, or taking a break;

if not, displaying attention-following behavior;

determining the user'"'"'s emotional state;

displaying empathetic behavior based on the determined emotional state;

determining the user'"'"'s feelings about the current behavior; and

increasing or decreasing the probability of choosing the current behavior based on the determined feelings.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising the steps of:

determining whether or not the user is new or is has not used the system during a prespecified time period; and

if the user is new or is has not used the system during the prespecified time period, exhibiting greeting behavior.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the greeting behavior exhibited is determined by a user preference setting.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the steps of determining and monitoring employ data obtained from at least one of a camera sensor, a pressure distribution seat sensor, a task accomplishment detection mechanism and a biometric sensor.