J. Klein, Rosalind W. Picard, J. Riseberg

Abstract

We believe that technology has advanced to the point that we can begin to develop tools that can help people meet their emotional needs, and that such work is important to the development of human-computer interaction. While we strongly believe that technology should never replace interpersonal interaction, humans often suffer from the lack of such contact. We see technology's role as a tool to educate, empower and perhaps help "fill in gaps" for meeting experiential emotional needs when other humans are unable to fulfill such roles.