Artificial Intelligence as we've come to know it is an incredibly complex tool. All manner of things can be analysed with AI, from shopping habits to logistical solutions. But what we're interested in here is using AI in speech and language recognition. Regular AI is really good at detecting intelligent speech, however it struggles to detect the emotional intention behind speech. When learning another language at school, we learn specifics – cat chat, dog chien. We don't learn the nuances behind the language until we experience them.

Human perception AI pioneer Affectiva has been granted six patents for detecting the awareness and emotions of vehicle occupants. Affectiva Automotive AI combines deep learning with computer vision – using in-vehicle cameras – to analyse the states of the driver and other vehicle occupants in a cabin in real-time. "Over the last decade, Affectiva has continuously pursued new patents as we have pioneered and advanced the fields of Emotion AI and Human Perception AI. The breadth and depth of our patent portfolio reflect our commitment to pushing the boundaries of computer vision, machine learning, deep learning and AI at the edge; and, is a testament to our leadership in defining the many creative and diverse applications of Human Perception AI that are shaping industries today and in the future." The main benefit of this data is, of course, safety.

It's a bright April day in Boston, and Gabi Zijderveld, a pioneer in the field of emotional artificial intelligence, is trying to explain why teaching robots to feel is as important as teaching them to think. "We live in a world surrounded by all these super-advanced technologies, hyper-connected devices, AI systems with super cognitive abilities -- or, as I like to say, lots of IQ but absolutely no EQ," says Zijderveld, chief marketing officer of Affectiva, the startup that spun out of the MIT Media Lab 10 years ago to build emotionally intelligent machines. "Just like humans that are successful in business and in life -- they have high emotional intelligence and social skills -- we should expect the same with technology, especially for these technologies that are designed to interact with humans." Giving machines a soul has been a dream of scientists, and sci-fi writers, for decades. But until recently, the idea of robots with heart was the stuff of moviemaking.

What gave you the idea to work in this area? What problem--or problems--are you trying solve? When I was doing my PhD at Cambridge University, I was constantly using my laptop to communicate with my family back home in Egypt. I realized I was spending more time interacting with technology than with any other human being. And as I communicated with my family, they had no clue how I was feeling except for the smiley or sad face emojis that I could send them.