Friday 8th May
Professor Peter Robinson (University of Cambridge)

The meeting booklet and the audio recordings of the presentations are available from the recent The Royal Society discussion meeting, held on the 20-21 April 2009, entitled "Computation of Emotions in Man and Machine", organised by Professor Peter Robinson and Dr Rana el Kaliouby.

Title & Abstract : Computation of Emotions in Man and Machines.

The importance of emotional expression as part of human Communication has been understood since the seventeenth century, and has been explored scientifically since Charles Darwin and others in the nineteenth century. Advances in computer technology now allow machines to recognise and express emotions, paving the way for improved human-computer and human-human communications. This talk presents some recent advances in theories of emotion and affect, their embodiment in computational systems, the implications for general communications, and broader applications.
Recent advances in Psychology have greatly improved our understanding of the role of affect in communication, perception, decision-making, attention and memory. At the same time, advances in technology mean that it is becoming possible for machines to sense, analyse and express emotions. We can now consider how these advances relate to each other and how they can be brought together to influence future research in perception, attention, learning, memory, communication, decision-making and other applications.
The computation of emotions includes both expression and recognition, using channels such as facial expressions, non-verbal aspects of speech, posture, gestures and general behaviour. The combination of new results in psychology with new techniques of computation on new technologies will enable new applications in commerce, education, entertainment, security, therapy and everyday life. However, there are important issues of privacy and personal expression that must also be considered.

About the speaker:
Peter Robinson is Professor of Computer Technology in the Computer Laboratory at the University of Cambridge, where he leads the Rainbow Research Group working on computer graphics and interaction.
His research concerns problems at the boundary between people and computers. This involves investigating new technologies to enhance communication between computers and their users, and new applications to exploit these technologies. The main focus for this is human-computer interaction, where he has been leading work for some years on the use of video and paper as part of the user interface. The idea is to develop augmented environments in which everyday objects acquire computational properties through user interfaces based on video projection and digital cameras. Recent work has included desk-size projected displays and inference of users' mental states from facial expressions, speech, posture and gestures.

Professor Robinson is a Fellow of Gonville & Caius College where he previously studied for a first degree in Mathematics and a PhD in Computer Science under Neil Wiseman. He is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the British Computer Society.

Friday 5th June
Professor Martin Rieser (De Montfort University)

Title & Abstract : The Art of Mobility: How transdisciplinary artists' projects are testing the boundaries of
mobile media design

Screen cultures to date have been dominated both by narrative and by its modes of framing.
Dispersed modes of interaction raise a series of questions about emergent new media art forms,
particularly in relation to an audience's changing modes of participation and reception. The
convergence of mobile technologies and pervasive computing methods are creating a world where
information-rich layers can be mapped directly onto urban topologies. This opens up a series of
interrogations around changing concepts of space and place and new perceptions of urban space for
a wide range of traditional disciplines from art and architecture to cultural studies. The blurring of the
boundaries between physical and virtual demands a new theory-base to explain our changing
concepts of the "real", and, with the growth of hybrid environments, the concomitant changes in
sociability and communication patterns.

The nature of audience interaction is responding to a socio-cultural dynamic that, although yet far
from being quantified, demonstrates both a desire for a greater degree of 'participation' (evidenced in
popular broadcast television e.g. Big Brother and its interactive outlets) and in the meteoric
expansion of social networking on sites such as MySpace and Facebook. Where both these
participatory and networking imperatives meet with pervasive media, an emergent art practice is
developing, which is pushing at the boundaries of these technologies.
This paper will examine and critically align a number of projects using mobile and pervasive
technologies which have challenged the design and delivery of mobile services from around the
world, as documented on the author's weblog and forthcoming book Mobile Audience. These will be
presented together with examples from the Artist's own research and practice.

About the speaker:
Martin holds the position of Joint research Professor between the Institute of Creative Technologies and The Faculty of Art and Design at De Montfort University. His interests involve practicing as a media artist and theorist working in a range of media from Locative Media and Interactive Installation. He has delivered papers on interactive narrative and exhibited at many major conferences in the field including Inter-Society for the Electronic Arts: Montreal 1995, Rotterdam 1996, Chicago 1997, Nagoya 2002, University of Oslo 2004, Siggraph, 2005, Banff Arts Centre 2005, Digital Matchmakers Trondheim 2005 Plan ICA 2005, NAI Rotterdam 2008, Intelligent Environments Seattle 2008, Locunet, University of Athens 2008, and at many other conference venues across the UK and Europe. His books include New Screen Media ( BFI/ZKM, 2002) and The Mobile Audience (Rodopi, 2008).

Friday 12th June Professor Peter Wright (Sheffield Hallam University)

Title & Abstract :Bringing user experience to design

Terry Winograd was right when said designing for the whole range of human experience would be the next great challenge for design. But what does it mean to design for human experience? It means we have to understand the people we design for, not just as subjects of scientific analysis but as people who, as John Dewey would say, grow, love, live, suffer and endure and who make and do stuff in order to locate themselves in a world.

About the speaker:
Peter Wright is Professor of human-centred design at Sheffield Hallam University, UK. His book Technology as Experience (MIT Press) sets out conceptual and philosophical foundations for experience-centred design. His recent research includes IT support for chronic illness, experience-based co-design of health services and innovative approaches to user research.