Research
Affective Computing

Advance human wellbeing by developing new ways to communicate, understand, and respond to emotion
Archived
Research
Advancing Wellbeing

Advancing Wellbeing
Project Research

Adaptive Music for Affect Improvement

Adaptive Music for Affect Improvement (AMAI) is a music generation and playback system with the goal of steering the listener toward a st...
Project Research

Personalized Machine Learning for Future Health

​The view on Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) diagnosis has shifted towards a more dynamic process in which clinical and pathological markers evo...
Project Research

Improving Wellbeing for Office Workers

Excessive stress can decrease office workers' productivity and negatively impact overall health. This project aims to predict office work...
Research
Fluid Interfaces

Designing wearable systems for cognitive enhancement
Project Research

Affective Robotic Ring

An affective robotic ring which allows users to interact with multiple robots using finger gestures.- Runs on Robotic Operating System (R...
Archived
Article Research

Rosalind Picard: Affective Computing, Emotion, Privacy, and Health | Artificial Intelligence Podcast

In an interview with MIT research scientist Lex Fridman, Rosalind Picard discusses affective computing, privacy, diversity in tech, and more
Project Research

Personalized Animated Movies

Storytelling is a fundamental way in which human beings understand the world. Imagine watching a movie telling the story of your life, ho...
Post Research

Affective Computing researchers win Best Paper Award at IEEE BHI 2019

"Improving Students' Daily Life Stress Forecasting using LSTM Neural Networks," by Terumi Umematsu, Akane Sano, Sara Taylor, an...
Project Research

Improving wellbeing prediction performance using temporal machine learning models

This project aims to improve the prediction accuracy of wellbeing (stress, mood, and health levels) using temporal machine learning model...
Project Research

SNAPSHOT Study

The SNAPSHOT study seeks to measure Sleep, Networks, Affect, Performance, Stress, and Health using Objective Techniques. It is an NIH-fun...
Article Research

Computing Careers: Advice from Rosalind Picard on succeeding in the fast-growing field of "affective computing"

Affective Computing head Rosalind Picard talks to IEEE Computer Society for their series on careers in computing.
Archived
Project Research

MACH: My Automated Conversation coacH

MACH, My Automated Conversation coacH, is a system for people to practice social interactions in face-to-face scenarios. MACH consists of...
Archived
Project Research

BioEssence

A wearable olfactory display that monitors cardio-respiratory information to support mental wellbeing.BioEssence is a novel wearable olfa...
Publication Research

AMAI: Adaptive Music for Affect Improvement

Su, D., Picard, R., Liu, Y. "AMAI: Adaptive Music for Affect Improvement." Proceedings of the 44th International Computer Music Conference (ICMC), Daegu, Korea, August 2018.
Project Research

BrainBeat: Breath-based music therapy

Can we sonfiy calming breathing and passively influence a state of calm?Deep breathing has been scientifically proven to affect the heart...
Project Research

Emotion Navigation

Before automobiles were invented and widely adopted, animals like horses were the most common mode of transportation. While this change b...
Project Research

WorldBeat: Hearing the world differently

Can we modulate the way we hear the world around us to make it more calming or to induce focus? While technology is usually associated wi...
Project Research

SPRING: A Smart Platform for Research, Intervention, and Neurodevelopmental Growth

SPRING is a custom-built hardware and software platform for children with neuro-differences. The system automates data acquisition, optim...
Project Research

Predicting students' wellbeing from physiology, phone, mobility, and behavioral data

The goal of this project is to apply machine learning methods to model the wellbeing of MIT undergraduate students. Extensive data is obt...
Project Research

Modulating peripheral and cortical arousal using a musical motor response task

We are conducting EEG studies to identify the musical features and musical interaction patterns that universally impact measures of arous...
Project Research

Learning via Social Awareness: Improving sketch representations with facial feedback

In the quest towards general artificial intelligence (AI), researchers have explored developing loss functions that act as intrinsic moti...
Project Research

BrightBeat: Effortlessly influencing breathing for cultivating calmness and focus

The relationship between breathing and self-reported stress is bidirectional. Respiration pattern is an indicator of stress, but it can a...
Project Research

An EEG and motion-capture based expressive music interface for affective neurofeedback

This project examines how the expression granted by new musical interfaces can be harnessed to create positive changes in health and well...
Project Research

Artificial listener with social intelligence

A social robot modifies its behavior to change what you think about it!
Project Research

Leveraging artificial intelligence for the assessment of severity of depressive symptoms

Depressive disorders are ranked as the single largest contributor to non-fatal health loss (7.5% of all Years Lived with Disability), aff...
Article Research

Emotion AI, explained

Senior leaders should consider how emotion AI could change their industries and play a critical role in their firms.
Project Research

Personalized Machine Learning for Autism Therapy

EngageME: Personalized machine learning and humanoid robots for measuring affect and engagement of children with autismEngageME is a proj...
Article Research

Six MIT researchers elected to the National Academy of Engineering for 2019

Six MIT researchers are among the 86 new members and 18 foreign associates elected to the National Academy of Engineering.
Publication Research

Personalized Machine Learning for Robot Perception of Affect and Engagement in Autism Therapy

Rudovic, O., Lee, J., Dai, M., Schuller, B. , Picard, R. W., " Personalized machine learning for robot perception of affect and engagement in autism therapy," Science Robotics, June 2018.
Research
Personal Robots

Building socially engaging robots and interactive technologies to help people live healthier lives, connect with others, and learn better
Project Research

EmotionalBeasts

With advances in virtual reality (VR) and physiological sensing technology, even more immersive computer-mediated communication through l...
Publication Research

Emotional Beasts: Visually Expressing Emotions through Avatars in VR

Bernal, Guillermo, and Pattie Maes. "Emotional Beasts: Visually Expressing Emotions through Avatars in VR." Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ACM, 2017.
Project Research

Image Sentiment Analysis

 In this project we explore how to recognize and localize affect in images.
Archived
Project Research

Masque

 When the body senses itself internally and localizes its actions, it provides the basis for a material sense of self-existence. At ...
Archived
Project Research

Machine Learning for Pain Measurement

Pain is a subjective experience commonly measured through patients' self reports. Unfortunately, self-report measures only work when...
Project Research

Human-Robot Trust

Unconventional mixing of research fields introduces a new method to study human behavior using social robots.
Article Research

Tech community wrestles over working with government

Hiawatha Bray reports on the unrest bubbling up in the tech industry.
Article Research

Personalized “deep learning” equips robots for autism therapy

Machine learning network offers personalized estimates of children’s behavior.
Publication Research

Wearable ESM: Comparing the Wearable Experience Sampling Method across Wearable Devices

Hernandez, J., McDuff, D., Infante, C., Maes, P., Quigley, K., and Picard, R. W. "Wearable ESM: Comparing the Wearable Experience Sampling Method across Wearable Devices," In Proceedings of Mobile Human Computer Interaction, Florence, Italy, September 2016.
Article Research

Can AI Learn to Understand Emotions?

Rana el Kaliouby is now helping AI understand human emotion. Rosalind Picard pioneered the field of affective computing.
Publication Research

Learning via social awareness: improving sketch representations with facial feedback

Jaques, N., Engel, J., Ha, D., Bertsch, F., Picard, R., and Eck, D. "Learning via social awareness: improving sketch representations with facial feedback." International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR) Workshop, Vancouver, Canada, April 2018.
Project Research

Realtime Detection of Social Cues

Realtime detection of social cues in children’s voicesIn everyday conversation, people use what are known as backchannels to signal to so...
Project Research

Predicting Trust Between People

Machine learning model outperforms human judgementOur computational trust model is capable of predicting—above human accuracy—the degree ...
Project Research

QuantifyMe

Unlike traditional randomized controlled trials that generalize relationships in large groups of people, single-case experiments seek to ...
Project Research

Behavioral Indications of Depression Severity

In collaboration with Massachusetts General Hospital, we are conducting a clinical trial exploring objective methods for assessing depres...
Publication Research

Importance of Sleep Data in Predicting Next-Day Stress, Happiness, and Health in College Students

Taylor, S., Jaques, N., Nosakhare, E., Sano, A., Klerman, E., and Picard, R. "Importance of Sleep Data in Predicting Next-Day Stress, Happiness, and Health in College Students," Sleep2017, June 2017.
Publication Research

QuantifyMe: An Open-Source Automated Single-Case Experimental Design Platform

Taylor, S.*, Sano, A.*, Ferguson, C., Mohan, A., Picard, R. "QuantifyMe: An Open-Source Automated Single-Case Experimental Design Platform," Sensors, April 2018. (*equal contribution)
Publication Research

Personalized Multitask Learning for Predicting Tomorrow's Mood, Stress, and Health

Taylor, S.*, Jaques, N.*, Nosakhare, E., Sano, A. and Picard, R., "Personalized Multitask Learning for Predicting Tomorrow's Mood, Stress, and Health," in IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing, vol. PP, no. 99, pp. 1-1. doi: 10.1109/TAFFC.2017.2784832 *Both authors contributed equally.
Publication Research

Skin conductance deconvolution for pain estimation

Lopez-Martinez, D., and Picard, R. "Skin conductance deconvolution for pain estimation". International Conference on Biomedical and Health Informatics (BHI), Las Vegas, USA, March 2018
Publication Research

Location Patterns from Phone Sensors May Help Predict Depressive Symptoms: A Longitudinal Pilot Study

Howe, E., Ghandeharioun, A., Pedrelli, P., Mischoulon, D., Picard, R., Fedor, S. "Location Patterns from Phone Sensors May Help Predict Depressive Symptoms: A Longitudinal Pilot Study," Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies Annual Convention – Tech SIG, San Diego, CA, November 2017.
Publication Research

Findings from Modeling Peaks in Electrodermal Activity during Sleep as a Point Process

Taylor, S., Sano, A., and Picard, R. W. "Findings from Modeling Peaks in Electrodermal Activity during Sleep as a Point Process" 56th Annual Meeting of the Society for Psychophysiological Research, Minnesota, USA, September 2016.
Thesis Research

Characterizing Electrodermal Responses during Sleep in a 30-day Ambulatory Study

Taylor, S. "Characterizing Electrodermal Responses during Sleep in a 30-day Ambulatory Study", MIT Master's Thesis, September 2016.
Publication Research

Recognizing Academic Performance Sleep Quality Stress Level and Mental Health using Personality Traits Wearable Sensors and Mobile Phones

Sano, A., Phillips, A.J., Yu A.Z., McHill, A.W., Taylor, S., Jaques, N., Czeisler, C,A., Klerman, E.B., Picard. R.W., "Recognizing Academic Performance, Sleep Quality, Stress Level, and Mental Health using Personality Traits, Wearable Sensors and Mobile Phones," In the proceedings of Body Sensor Networks, Cambridge, USA, June 2015.
Publication Research

Prediction of Happy-Sad Mood from Daily Behaviors and Previous Sleep History

Sano, A., Yu A.Z., McHill, A.W., Phillips, A.J., Taylor, S., Jaques, N., Czeisler, C,A., Klerman, E.B., Picard. R.W. "Prediction of Happy-Sad Mood from Daily Behaviors and Previous Sleep History" In Proc. International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), Milan, Italy, August 2015
Publication Research

Predicting students' happiness from physiology phone mobility and behavioral data

Jaques, N., Taylor, S., Azaria, A., Ghandeharioun, A., Sano, A., and Picard, R. "Predicting students' happiness from physiology, phone, mobility, and behavioral data" In Proc. Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction (ACII), Xi'an, China, September 2015.
Publication Research

Structure of Electrodermal Responses during Sleep

Taylor, S., Sano, A., and Picard, R. "Structure of Electrodermal Responses during Sleep," Sleep2017, June 2017.
Publication Research

Influence of Weekly Sleep Regularity on Self-Reported Wellbeing

Sano A, Phillips AJ, McHill AW, Taylor S, Barger LK, Czeisler CA, Picard RW. "Influence of Weekly Sleep Regularity on Self-Reported Wellbeing," Sleep2017, June 2017.
Publication Research

Integrating EMA, clinical assessment and wearable sensors to examine the association between MDD and alcohol use

Pedrelli, P., Howe, E., Mischoulon, D., Picard, R., Ghandeharioun, A., Fedor, S."Integrating EMA, clinical assessment and wearable sensors to examine the association between MDD and alcohol use," Connected Health Conference, Boston, MA, October 2017.
Publication Research

Objective assessment of depressive symptoms with machine learning and wearable sensors data

Ghandeharioun, A., Fedor, S., Sangermano, L., Ionescu, D., Alpert, J., Dale, C., Sontag, D., Picard, R. "Objective assessment of depressive symptoms with machine learning and wearable sensors data," International Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction (ACII), San Antonio, Texas, October 2017.
Publication Research

BrightBeat: Effortlessly Influencing Breathing for Cultivating Calmness and Focus

Ghandeharioun, A., Picard, R."BrightBeat: Effortlessly Influencing Breathing for Cultivating Calmness and Focus," Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ACM, Denver, May 2017.
Thesis Research

BrightBeat: Effortlessly Influencing Breathing for Cultivating Calmness and Focus

Ghandeharioun, A. "BrightBeat: Effortlessly Influencing Breathing for Cultivating Calmness and Focus", MIT Master's Thesis, September 2016.
Publication Research

Objective vs. Subjective Reports of Sleep Quality in Major Depressive Disorder: A Pilot Study

Ghandeharioun, A., Sangermano, L., Picard, R., Alpert, J., Dale, C., Ionescu, D., Fedor, S. "Objective vs. Subjective Reports of Sleep Quality in Major Depressive Disorder: A Pilot Study," Anxiety and Depression Conference (ADAA), San Fransisco, April 2017.
Publication Research

Location Variability from Commodity Phone Sensors Is Negatively Associated with Self-Reported Depression Score: A Pilot Study

Ghandeharioun, A., Fedor, S., Sangermano, L., Alpert, J., Dale, C., Ionescu, D., Picard, R. "Location Variability from Commodity Phone Sensors Is Negatively Associated with Self-Reported Depression Score: A Pilot Study," Association for Psychological Science (APS) annual convention, Boston, May 2017.
Publication Research

Incoming Cell Phone Data as a Potential Predictor of Depression Severity: A Pilot Study

Sangermano, L., Ghandeharioun, A., Picard, R., Alpert, J., Dale, C., Fedor, S., Ionescu, D. "Incoming Cell Phone Data as a Potential Predictor of Depression Severity: A Pilot Study," Anxiety and Depression Conference (ADAA), San Fransisco, April 2017.
Project Research

PERSONAlised Mental Health Monitoring System

Project OverviewDepression is one of the most prevailing health problems in the world. Many recent publications have provided statistics ...
Archived
Project Research

Intentional Inference of Emotions

Emotion recognition modeled as a goal-directed process!
Thesis Research

Modeling the Dynamics of Nonverbal Behavior on Interpersonal Trust for Human-Robot Interactions

Jin Joo Lee. Modeling the Dynamics of Nonverbal Behavior on Interpersonal Trust for Human-Robot Interactions. Masters Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2011.
Publication Research

Computationally Modeling Interpersonal Trust

JJ Lee, WB Knox, JB Wormwood, C Breazeal, D DeSteno (2013). Computationally Modeling Interpersonal Trust. Frontiers in Psychology.
Thesis Research

A Bayesian Theory of Mind Approach to Nonverbal Communication for Human-Robot Interactions

Jin Joo Lee. A Bayesian Theory of Mind Approach to Nonverbal Communication for Human-Robot Interactions. PhD Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2017.
Publication Research

Predicting Tomorrow's Mood, Health, and Stress Level using Personalized Multitask Learning and Domain Adaptation

Jaques, N., Rudovic, O., Taylor, S., Sano, A., and Picard, R. Proceedings of Machine Learning Research, 48, 17-33. August 2017.