Week 8 Readings and Homework

READ:

Relational Agents and Computational Empathy

Klein, Jonathan, Youngme Moon, and Rosalind W. Picard. "This computer responds to user frustration: Theory, design, and results." Interacting with computers 14, no. 2 (2002): 119-140. 02.klein-moon-picard.pdf Download 02.klein-moon-picard.pdf

Bickmore, Timothy W., and Rosalind W. Picard. "Establishing and maintaining long-term human-computer relationships." ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI) 12, no. 2 (2005): 293-327. toCHI.pdf Download toCHI.pdf

Picard, R. W., & Liu, K. K. (2007). Relative subjective count and assessment of interruptive technologies applied to mobile monitoring of stress. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 65(4), 361-375. Picard+Liu-2007-RelativeSubjectiveCount.pdf Download Picard+Liu-2007-RelativeSubjectiveCount.pdf

Ethics

Cowie, Roddy. "Ethical issues in affective computing." In The Oxford handbook of affective computing, pp. 334-348. Oxford University Press, 2015. oxfordhb-9780199942237-e-006.pdf Download oxfordhb-9780199942237-e-006.pdf

Watch:

Kate Darling's talk

 https://www.ted.com/talks/kate_darling_why_we_have_an_emotional_connection_to_robots#t-93180

EXPLORE and WRITE:

(1) How good are you at following the formula in the Klein paper?  Write a short conversation between two people, one of whom "Tracy" has had a bad day, and the other "Sam" who shows intelligent active listening, empathy and sympathy.  Write out what they each say, line by line, as a theatre script would do.   Double check that you followed the formula. 

(2) (a) Attempt this week to follow the same formula but in a real-life conversation, using your own words.  What happened ?  Jot the conversation if you can remember it (b) What, specifically is the feeling that the other person had?  (c) How did you show them that you accurately understood what they felt?   (d) How natural were you able to feel with this strategy for "showing empathy"?  (e)  How did they receive it?  (Please try to not reveal people's identity, and yes it's fine to use as an example a conversation where somebody showed the empathy to you, although it's best if you learn to show it to them. Even if it backfires, report what happened). Note: If you are sheltering alone, then you will need to make time to reach out to talk with someone. so don't put this off.

(3) (a) Describe what you think is a compelling benefit/good that could arise with a relational-affective technology. (b) Describe a potential troubling or even dangerous use of a relational-affective technology. (c) How might this bad use be prevented?

(4):  Find and read two additional articles that relate to your project.   For each reference give (i) Its full citation (as would be listed in a bibliography, as the paper entries above have). (ii) Give its abstract (iii) Give a few lines about what you learned from it and how it relates to your project planning.  (For a team of 3 people, this would be six different references in total, but each person just provides two here).