Project Works on Robots That Can Recognize Human Emotions
From: The Engineer (UK) - 07/08/2011
By: Stephen Harris 

UK researchers believe humans will be more likely to accept robots as part of
everyday life if they are capable of recognizing human emotions. As part of
the European Union-funded LIREC project, a team from Queen Mary,
Hertfordshire, and Heriot-Watt universities will conduct psychological
experiments on humans to determine how they recognize and understand
emotions. The team will use that research to develop mathematical models that
enable robots to read social situations. The robots will use the software to
recognize movement in people's faces, understand their emotions, respond to
human emotions, and change their behavior accordingly. "It's a question of
finding out how biology does it and trying to build systems that do the
same," says Queen Mary professor Peter McOwan. "We want to have a better
understanding of how human brains process information about faces and build
those ideas into the next generation of socially-aware robotic companions."
The researchers also are studying how to integrate the robots into homes,
schools, and offices. The team will test robots in all three environments and
wrap up the project in 2012. 

Read the entire article at:
http://www.theengineer.co.uk/sectors/electronics/project-works-on-robots-that-can-recognise-human-emotions/1009300.article

Links:
LIREC Project
http://www.lirec.eu/

Peter McOwan
http://www.eecs.qmul.ac.uk/~pmco/
http://www.eecs.qmul.ac.uk/staff//staff.php?l=pmco

Soon, 'friendly robots’ that emote to entertain you
http://www.hindustantimes.com/Soon-friendly-robots-that-emote-to-entertain-you/Article1-719490.aspx

Project of Robotoc Head called EMYS
http://emys.lirec.ict.pwr.wroc.pl/

Expressive robot aims to be friendly
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/8626070/Expressive-robot-aims-to-be-friendly.html