×î×¼µÄÁùºÏ²ÊÂÛ̳

XClose

×î×¼µÄÁùºÏ²ÊÂÛ̳ Module Catalogue

Home
Menu

Affective Computing and Human-Robot Interaction (COMP0053)

Key information

Faculty
Faculty of Engineering Sciences
Teaching department
Computer Science
Credit value
15
Restrictions
Module delivery for UG Masters (FHEQ Level 7) available on MEng Computer Science; MEng Mathematical Computation. Module delivery for PGT (FHEQ Level 7) available on MSc Artificial Intelligence for Biomedicine and Healthcare; MSc Artificial Intelligence for Sustainable Development; MSc Computational Statistics and Machine Learning; MSc Data Science and Machine Learning; MSc Machine Learning; MSc Robotics and Artificial Intelligence.
Timetable

Alternative credit options

There are no alternative credit options available for this module.

Description

Aims:

The module targets students who have no previous knowledge in cognitive science and emotion theory and therefore the aim of Part A of the module is to give a basic introduction to the theory of emotion from physiological and psychological viewpoints and to understand its importance in human decision and communication processes. Part B will concentrate on the application of machine learning techniques to automatic emotion recognition by looking at current applications (e.g., in entertainment, education, and health) and available sensing technology. Part C will focus on the challenges in designing robots that are capable of socially interacting with humans. Examples of current applications (e.g., in entertainment, health, rehabilitation, service robotics) will be used to identify problems and discuss affective computing challenges and approaches for the topics taught in Parts A and B.

Intended learning outcomes:

On successful completion of the module, a student will be able to:

  1. Have basic knowledge of emotion models and of how technology (e.g.,Ìýrobot) can be endowed with the ability to affectively and socially interact with its user.
  2. Understand the challenges that affective computing and social HRI pose to the machine learning field and identify the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches to address those issues.

Indicative content:

The following are indicative of the topics the module will typically cover:

Emotion theory:

  • What is affect, emotion, mood?
  • Why do we have emotions?
  • Neurological and psychological perspectives.
  • How do humans express and recognise emotions?
  • Emotion expression models, appraisal theories.
  • Affective and social interaction.

Affective computing:

  • Definition.
  • Aims and current challenges.
  • Applications; emotion recognition.
  • How to select and use sensors for data collection.
  • How to build an automatic emotion recognition system from: single modality,Ìýfacial expressions, body expressions, touch expressions, voice, bio-signals and multimodal fusion.

Introduction to Physiological computing:

  • Key concepts (physiological sensing, affect recognition, biofeedback).
  • How to build low-cost physiological computing systems (e.g. emergent wearable devices, low-cost cameras).
  • Types of affect-related physiological signals and how to obtain features (cardiovascular, respiratory, perspiratory etc).

Human-Robot Interaction (HRI):

  • Social robotics: motivation and emotions in robot.
  • Emotion based architecture.
  • Ethical issues in Affective Computing and HRI research.

Requisites:

To be eligible to select this module as optional or elective, a student must: (1) be registered on a programme and year of study for which it is a formally available; (2) have some machine learning background, for example from Supervised Learning (COMP0078), or Introduction to Machine Learning (COMP0088); and (3) have some programming skills (for example, Python, MATLAB, Java, C, C++).

There is no imposed programming platform.

Module deliveries for 2024/25 academic year

Intended teaching term: Term 2 ÌýÌýÌý Undergraduate (FHEQ Level 7)

Teaching and assessment

Mode of study
In person
Methods of assessment
40% Group activity
60% Coursework
Mark scheme
Numeric Marks

Other information

Number of students on module in previous year
11
Module leader
Professor Nadia Berthouze
Who to contact for more information
cs.pgt-students@ucl.ac.uk

Intended teaching term: Term 2 ÌýÌýÌý Postgraduate (FHEQ Level 7)

Teaching and assessment

Mode of study
In person
Methods of assessment
40% Group activity
60% Coursework
Mark scheme
Numeric Marks

Other information

Number of students on module in previous year
29
Module leader
Professor Nadia Berthouze
Who to contact for more information
cs.pgt-students@ucl.ac.uk

Last updated

This module description was last updated on 19th August 2024.

Ìý