Special Track on Affective Computing

Affective computing (AC) is an emerging field that aspires to narrow the communicative gap between the highly emotional human and the emotionally challenged computer by developing computational systems that recognize and respond to the affective states (such as moods and emotions) of the user. One of the basic tenets behind AC is that automatically recognizing and responding to a user's affective states during interactions with a computer can enhance the quality of the interaction, thereby making the computer interface more usable, enjoyable, and effective. For example, an affect-sensitive learning environment that detects and responds to student frustration is expected to increase motivation, engagement, and learning gains. This special track will serve as a forum to unite researchers from the interdisciplinary arena that encompasses computer science, engineering, HCI, psychology, and education to exchange ideas, frameworks, methods, and tools relating to affective computing. Although the last decade has been ripe with theory and applications relevant to AC, these advances are accompanied by a new set of challenges.