Affective Computing

Mitzmael Martin M. Salubre

BSIS Student(Section F)
B11 Lot 37 Phase 1 Silvercreek subd,
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ABSTRACT As cognitive, developmental, and educational psychologists have
This paper covers all relevant information regarding Affective moved out of the laboratory and tried to apply their findings to the
Computing used in online learning. Affective computing, is an classroom context, it has become evident that students’ and
emerging technology that could be used to improve user teachers’ motivational beliefs (i.e., goals, purposes, intentions,
experience. interests, self-perceptions of efficacy, control, and competence)
influence their learning and behavior. In the 1990s, motivational
This paper will focus on the usage of affective computing on issues can no longer be ignored by researchers interested in
improving user experience in online learning, its concept, ethical cognition and learning in the classroom. (Pintrich, 1991, p. 199)
implications, and the tools needed to run the system.
Through recent studies, results show that emotions do affect the
learning effectiveness of students. Notice how students tend to
study out in cafés or libraries?
1. INTRODUCTION Analysis showed that students found that the background
In December 2019 an unexpected calamity struct humanity and atmosphere greatly influenced their choice of study location and
changed everything in a blink. The Covid affected spread like that technological devices were only used sparingly. Students
wildfire changing the lifestyle of many, forcing companies to set adapted their study habits to fit the learning spaces that they liked.
up a working structure that allows employees to work in the (Hunter, J. and Cox, A. 2014)
leisure of their home and utilize applications such as MS teams
and Google meet. Students and teachers are also much affected in Therefore a student’s studying effectiveness is affected by the
this new style of life that is introduced, teachers, being used to emotions the individual is going through or the environment he is
having their students in a classroom or to be able to see them eye in. Through affective computing the system could help simulate
to eye, read their body language, and assess if the student is bored, an environment that could improve the studying effectiveness of
interested or not listening at all during a discussion. Students the student or understand, recognize, interpret, and process the
being used to having classes in school or a place with little to no student’s state and adjust to the user to give comfort to the user
distraction are now being forced to take classes in their own thus giving a good environment for studying.
home, with little to no supervision allowing them to easily change
tabs or use other applications during the discussion to kill
boredom. With this new idea of “normal” being implemented in 2.2 Computers as empaths?
today’s society, not just in corporate companies and education To further improve online learning we could program our
institutes Affective computing can easily solve the problems computers to be empathetic thus helping the teacher and the
being faced in this online setup that humanity is currently student in a more effective way of learning.
practicing. “Our participants reported that empathy plays a role in students’
Affective computing is the study of a system or computer learning. They noted empathy expressed in a typical classroom is
intelligence that focuses on understanding, interpreting, complicated because it may include many dimensions. Although
recognizing, and simulating human affects. It senses the emotion empathy helps in connecting with the students, they believed it
or state of mind the user is going through so that the system can was equally important to know the limits and ideal situations to
adjust to the user giving the user a better user experience. express empathy. It is important for teachers to be” - Arghode V.,
Yalvac, B., and Liew, j. (2013)
This article is going to discuss how affective computing can be
The study by Arghode V., Yalvac, B., and Liew, j. (2013) shows
used interactively in the online setup to open various educational
that effective use of empathy could give better education and can
possibilities. Possibilities that can help students and teachers
help the student and teacher connect and let the teacher help the
personalize, connect better with each user and improve the
student a lot better.
learning experience and user experience.
By integrating empathy into affective computing, learning will be
a lot easier for students and teaching a lot easier for teachers.
2. Psychology
2.1 Happy Mind Happy Learning 3. Ethics
User emotions are within the research area of affective computing. When is affective computing unethical? Ethics will always be the
Affective computing is an exploration technique that may lead in question that gets asked when it comes to artificial intelligence
the future to the development of computer systems enriched with what I will talk about is not if it’s ethical or not but when is it
affective understanding (Picard, 1997). The question yet to be unethical.
asked right now is: do emotions affect the student’s effectiveness
Ethics will play a role in when is affective computing too alike to
in learning? And how can affective learning help establish an
humanity. A clear boundary should be set placed by its creators
emotional state for effective learning?
for the fear that the users might confuse reality with the artificial.
Some of humanity, the ones who are socially inept in introducing
themselves to society might have a harder time getting into
society for affective computing might give them a sense of
belonging and confuse this for reality.
Another ethical thought to ponder is, at some point the AI or in
this case, the Affective computing system might have its sentient
thought and will outstrip us of humanity or insubordinate us. In a
way, the system could gaslight the users into thinking that our
actions are done with our own will but in hindsight, they have
been pulling strings to make us think that our actions are the
actions that we wanted when it was a calculated reaction from the
system.
Affective computing could also be programmed in a way that
could cause romantic attraction to an inanimate object or change
the ideal or stand of the target or the user. Setting it in a way that
could confuse the user for love. The system could be designed in a
way to cause attraction to it, a person, or to another object. Then
the system could also be designed for other malicious goals. If the Figure 5.1: ESAT GUI, used to identify the emotion tagging. It
creator has ill-intent, he could use the system to woo or sway the shows the video of a game session and asks the user to identify
political leaders into something they don’t want their countries to her emotions over all the playback.
get into, instigating political dispute or even war.

5.2 Hardware
4. Current focus of study 5.2.1 Face Recognition Camera
This study focuses on the possible application of affective
A face recognition camera would be helpful for the system to
learning to students, teachers, and possibly workers alike.
determine the state of the user for it will gauge the users’
Through an affective computing system, user performance can be
emotional state based on its facial expression.
enhanced by adjusting the users’ application or the users’
interface to produce or stimulate emotions that could help arouse 5.2.2 Arduino Due
the user’s focus and mood. Through this system, online learning It is a programmable board that uses an Atmel SAM3X8E ARM
and home-based work can be improved to give the user the Cortex-M3 CPU with a 32-bit core. When used with sensors it can
environment or the feeling of the environment that could enhance acquire data on the 4 groups of physiological signals: ECG, EMG
the users’ performance. up to 5 facial muscles, GSR, Respiration of the user which could
further help the system identify, analyze, and interpret the
emotional state of the user.
5. Software and Hardware
6. Application
5.1 Software Currently, the Affective computing system is being used,
designed, and mentioned in a research about gaming. With
5.1.1 Software for Physiological Data Acquisition: affective computing, the emotional state of the user in gaming
DAPIS could affect the difficulty or the gaming experience of the user.
DAPIS is a software written in Java designed to acquire data of The system would adjust its playstyle depending on the emotions
the user. It is currently designed for gaming but with a few tweaks of the users giving it a feel of immersion and giving a superb
and reengineering it could be used for e-learning. The software gaming experience.
collects the physiology of the user such as facial expression, heart
rate, and body temperature which can be used to further process With this study we also aim to apply the system to online learning
this information and determine the psychological state of the user. to give students an immersive learning experience where the
system will adjust its content or style of teaching or presenting
data to students so that students would be immersed and would
give focus on learning the lessons or to nudge a teacher when a
5.1.2 ESAT: Tool for Self-Assessment student is currently not focused or bored of the class, this would
Similar to DAPIS this software is being used to develop a better allow the teacher to try to gain the attention of its student to better
gaming experience for users. Basically what the system does is it give a lesson to the teacher’s students.
processes the information given to it by DAPIS. The data, which
is the face image, body temperature, and heart rate, is then 7. Conclusion
processed, analyzed, and interpreted by ESAT to give information In conclusion, Affective computing is a system that understands,
of the state the user is in. interprets, recognizes, and simulates human emotions to improve
the user experience. This system could be used to improve the
experience of the user in possibly any cases, using the emotional
state of the user to its advantage to give better results for the
intended use.
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