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Towards an Affective Self-Service Agent

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Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Intelligent Human Computer Interaction (IHCI 2011), Prague, Czech Republic, August, 2011

Part of the book series: Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing ((AISC,volume 179))

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Abstract

While emotional intelligence plays a key role in facilitating satisfactory interactions between people, its application is both underexplored and underexploited in human–computer interaction. Self-service technology is increasingly being incorporated by goods and service providers, however user satisfaction is still less than ideal. Studies have been carried out in which an affective embodied agent has been found to reduce frustration in users of interactive computer systems. This paper presents a preliminary study as a part of research aimed at designing and implementing an agent which detects negative emotions in a human user and expresses its own emotional reaction with the aim of improving the user’s mood and therefore their level of satisfaction in the context of a self-service interaction. We describe a study to determine customer facial expressions using facial Action Units (AUs) during interactions with self-service supermarket checkouts. Our preliminary results indicate that AU 23 and AU 24 were displayed with particular frequency.

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Acknowledgments

The researchers would like to thank the supermarket for allowing us to carry out the filming session. We would also like to thank the participant who kindly allowed us to use their image in this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Abertay, Bell Street, Dundee, UK

    Christopher J. Martin, Jacqueline Archibald, Leslie Ball & Lloyd Carson

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  1. Christopher J. Martin
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  2. Jacqueline Archibald
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  3. Leslie Ball
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  4. Lloyd Carson
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christopher J. Martin .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Faculty of Electrical Engineering and, Technical University of Ostrava, 17. listopadu 15, Ostrava-Poruba, 708 33, Czech Republic

    Miloš Kudělka

  2. , Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Malostranske nam. 25, Praha, 118 00, Czech Republic

    Jaroslav PokornĂ˝

  3. , Faculty of Electrical Engineering and, Technical University of Ostrava, 17. listopadu 15, Ostrava-Poruba, 708 33, Czech Republic

    Václav Snášel

  4. Auburn, 98071, USA

    Ajith Abraham

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Martin, C.J., Archibald, J., Ball, L., Carson, L. (2013). Towards an Affective Self-Service Agent. In: Kudělka, M., Pokorný, J., Snášel, V., Abraham, A. (eds) Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Intelligent Human Computer Interaction (IHCI 2011), Prague, Czech Republic, August, 2011. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 179. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-31603-6_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-31603-6_1

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