Affective Computing and Computational Behaviour Analysis

Affect (emotions, mood) is an essential, integral part of human perception and interaction. Affective Computing aims to give computers the ability to recognise affective states, to express emotions (e.g. avatar), to have "emotional intelligence" in order to make better decisions. Affective sensing plays a key role in emerging transformational uses of IT, such as healthcare, security and next generation user interfaces. More broadly, computational behaviour analysis and social signal processing are concerned with developing computational models of human behaviour, actions, and expressions, both for individuals as well as groups. As an inter-disciplinary team, we work closely with researchers from computer vision, speech science, psychology, sports science, social signal processing and pattern recognition to solve real-world problems with a focus on health technology and sports performance analysis. Supported by state of the art research facilities in our Human-Centred Computing Laboratory, we perform world-class research leading to translation into practice.