Looking Out: Gaby

Emotion Technology

Project Date: Jun 10, 2011

Rosalind Picard is the director and founder of the Affective Computing group at the MIT Media Lab. "Affective Computing" can involve implementing emotions and giving a computer the ability to recognize, express and respond to emotions, among other things (Source: Affective Computing, 2000).

This video demonstrates how measuring arousal via skin conductance sensors can give us insight into what techniques can best connect with people on an emotional level. For example, measuring arousal  during a movie commercial, a class, or a presentation. These sensors have applications in advertising, health, education and many other fields.

Elmo Calls

Project Date: 2011

Elmo Calls is an interactive educational tool that encourages children to engage in imaginative play, practice new skills, and sing songs with Elmo. It was developed by a group of child-development experts, veteran toy designers and interaction designers at IDEO. (Source: Elmo Calls, IDEO Toy Lab).

I find this video pretty cool because it's so creative and playful yet still manages to show how important the choice of technology (phone, sound, video) as well as context (ex: bedtime, bathroom) is to the engaging the user. I also love how it involves the parents, who can program times for Elmo to call their son or daughter. This has a lot of applications in education and entertainment.