- Affective Computing is also the title of a textbook on the subject by Rosalind Picard.
Affective computing is the study and development of systems and devices that can recognize, interpret, process, and simulate human
affects. It is an interdisciplinary field spanning
computer science,
psychology, and
cognitive science. While the origins of the field may be traced as far back as to early philosophical enquiries into emotion, the more modern branch of computer science originated with
Rosalind Picard's 1995 paper on affective computing. A motivation for the research is the ability to simulate
empathy. The machine should interpret the emotional state of humans and adapt its behaviour to them, giving an appropriate response for those emotions.