On Nov. 13, Karon MacLean, professor in the University of British Columbia’s Department of Computer Science, gave a talk covering her lab’s research on emotionally-interactive robots. MacLean’s work, which began with constructing robots at MIT in the 1980s, has always gone against the grain of traditional robotic engineering. “The hierarchy[Read More…]
Tag: emotions
Luke Stark discusses how digital media exploits emotions in feminist tech series
Luke Stark, an assistant professor in the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at Western University, delivered a virtual talk on Jan. 18 about the history of affective computing and emotions in cybernetics, the science of communications and control in humans and machines. The lecture was part of an annual[Read More…]
Comedic, joyful, and sombre: ‘The Best Canadian Poetry of 2021’
Canadian poets, consistently overshadowed by American writers, rarely get the recognition their talents deserve. is A collection of 50 poems by Canadian poets, the Best Canadian Poetry 2021 anthology is curated by its guest editor Souvankham Thammavongsa, who has author of five books, including How to Pronounce Knife, and received[Read More…]
PGSS hosts panel on emotional labour
On May 23, the Post-Graduate Student Society (PGSS) hosted a panel on emotional labour and emotional abuse and how these ideas function within the broader systems of violence. Panel members included Equity Educational advisor (Anti-Racism and Cultural Diversity) Shanice Yarde, Montreal-based writer Malek Yalaoui, and PhD candidate in the Department[Read More…]
The impact of music on identity
Music affects the human brain in endless ways. From experiencing pleasure and joy to sound, to remembering autobiographical events, to communicating through movement, music impacts humans constantly and significantly. In a recent study published in February in Scientific Reports—led by Cognitive Psychologist and Professor Dr. Daniel Levitin—sex, drugs, and music[Read More…]
Sounds are better indicators of emotions than words
Researchers have discovered two separate pathways for how emotions conveyed through speech are processed in the brain. Led by Dr. Marc Pell, associate dean and director of McGill University’s School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, the work is the first of its kind to directly compare speech embedded emotions with[Read More…]
Identifying emotions through head movements: A descent into the uncanny valley
Human interactions are made up of complex exchanges of movements, sounds, and smells. In fact, researchers from the Sequence Production Lab at McGill University have shown that people are able to detect emotions simply by watching how people move their head. The work was conducted by Professor Caroline Palmer from[Read More…]
Understanding the world of hiero-gifics
As platforms like Short Message Service (SMS), Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp grow in popularity, the amount of time people spend interacting face-to-face decreases. To make up for this, tech enthusiasts and artists have teamed up to develop novel ways to convey emotion over text. Ranging from the humble smiley to[Read More…]
