"Our faces are organs of emotional communication; by some estimates, we transmit more data with our expressions than with what we say," says Raffi Khatchadourian in his article We Know How You Feel. Pioneers in the emotional communication space include Emotient, Realeyes, Sension, and Affectiva. All are competing to create emotionally responsive machines dedicated to decoding the human face, a notoriously difficult subject, who essence is rarely captured, even by the world's greatest artist. The BBC's claim that there are no less than 19 types of smiles that can break across a person's face, but only six are for happiness should give pause to the idea that reading people's faces is an easy thing to do. In his article, Raffi Khatchadourian profiles Affectiva, a startup specializing in cutting-edge AI technologies that applies machine learning, deep learning, and data science to emotional intelligence.

Dr. Rana el Kaliouby is the author of Girl Decoded and a leading expert on technology and empathy and the ethics of AI. This past June, Affectiva, the company she co-founded, was acquired by Smart Eye. In this virtual sit-down, we set out to learn more about what inspires Dr. el Kaliouby and how new innovations will change how we interface with technology and connect and communicate as humans. Q: Dr. el Kaliouby, tell us how you got started on your journey to exploring the role of emotion in today's technology-driven landscape? My education and career pursuits led me to Cambridge and later MIT, which meant I spent a lot of time in front of devices communicating with family back home.

The emotion recognition software segment is projected to grow dramatically in coming years, spelling success for companies that have established a beachhead in the market, while causing some who are skeptical about its accuracy and fairness to raise red flags. The global emotion detection and recognition market is projected to grow to $37.1 billion by 2026, up from an estimated $19.5 billion in 2020, according to a recent report from MarketsandMarkets. North America is home to the largest market. Software suppliers covered in the report include: NEC Global (Japan), IBM (US), Intel (US), Microsoft (US), Apple (US), Gesturetek (Canada), Noldus Technology (Netherlands), Google (US), Tobii (Sweden), Cognitec Systems (Germany), Cipia Vision Ltd (Formerly Eyesight Technologies) (Israel), iMotions (Denmark), Numenta (US), Elliptic Labs (Norway), Kairos (US), PointGrab (US), Affectiva (US), nViso (Switzerland), Beyond Verbal (Israel), Sightcorp (Holland), Crowd Emotion (UK), Eyeris (US), Sentiance (Belgium), Sony Depthsense (Belgium), Ayonix (Japan), and Pyreos (UK). Some question whether emotion recognition software is effective, and whether its use is ethical.

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.

These eight women are at the forefront of the field of artificial intelligence today. It is a simple truth: the field of artificial intelligence is far too male-dominated. According to a 2018 study from Wired and Element AI, just 12% of AI researchers globally are female. Artificial intelligence will reshape every corner of our lives in the coming years--from healthcare to finance, from education to government. It is therefore troubling that those building this technology do not fully represent the society they are poised to transform.

For many entrepreneurs, starting their startup is the most significant thing they do. For Rana el Kaliouby, it's one achievement in a series of unpredictable things that this self-described "nice Egyptian girl" has accomplished in her life. In her remarkable book Girl Decoded, el Kaliouby shares her inspiring academic and professional journey. Alongside this, it is an intimate meditation about what it took from her personally to accomplish all that she has. Born in Egypt to conservative Egyptian parents, the family spent several years in Kuwait and eventually fled back to Cairo when Iraq invaded Kuwait.

For many entrepreneurs, starting their startup is the most significant thing they do. For Rana el Kaliouby, it's one achievement in a series of unpredictable things that this self-described "nice Egyptian girl" has accomplished in her life. In her remarkable book Girl Decoded, el Kaliouby shares her inspiring academic and professional journey. Alongside this, it is an intimate meditation about what it took from her personally to accomplish all that she has. Born in Egypt to conservative Egyptian parents, the family spent several years in Kuwait and eventually fled back to Cairo when Iraq invaded Kuwait.

A smartphone that can warn you not to send a text while you're upset? Early in my career--back in the stone age before computers and smartphones--I worked in environments where memos were a primary means of communication. Sure, my colleagues and I could talk face-to-face, but the culture of the time was to memorialize much of our interaction in writing. Believe it or not, there were some advantages in what now seems such an archaic practice. Unlike texts and emails--where one tap of the "send" button can fill you with instant regret--the old-fashioned memo provided a cushion of safety, a chance to reconsider.

When we think of robots, we often think of mechanical objects that repeatedly carry out simple tasks or serve to the more basic roles in society and while the media may have portrayed robots that could mimic human behavior from movies such as Big hero 6 or Wall E, the idea of a robot not only interacting but understanding the nuances of human behavior seemed almost impossible. This is where Rana el Kaliouby comes in, an academic who studied at Cambridge and MIT, and spent her career tackling an increasingly important limitation of technology - that computers do not understand humans, became the co founder of a Boston based start up called Affectiva, and has been working in the dynamic field of Human Robot Interaction (HRI) for more than 20 years. In a recent interview, Ms Kaliouby stated "Technology today has a lot of cognitive intelligence, or IQ, but no emotional intelligence, or EQ",and goes on to say, "We are facing an empathy crisis. We need to redesign technology in a more human-centric way." While this isn't a main concern of AI that performs data driven, logical tasks such as data processing, but it does become a bigger concern when the AI is in contact with clients, whether it be an AI receptionist or a robot driver. Increasingly, artificial intelligence is being used to directly have contact with humans.

When you think of artificial intelligence and cars, the first thing that likely comes to mind is ambitious self-driving vehicle projects of tech giants like Google, Uber, and probably Apple. Most of these companies are leveraging AI to create cars that can understand their environments and navigate roads under different conditions, and hopefully, make driving safer--eventually. What's received less attention is the use of AI inside cars. Thanks to advances in deep learning, it has become possible to develop technologies that can determine what is happening inside vehicles and make the ride safer and more pleasant--all while creating new privacy and security risks. For better or worse, many applications of in-car AI are right around the corner.