Robert Gruhl


Bachelors candidate in Computer Science

Research interests
Affective computing, wearable computing, intelligent agents, machine vision, and recognition systems

Advisor: Roz Picard

Co-Advisor: Marvin Minsky

Education
Candidate for S.B., Electrical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1993

Experience

MIT AI Lab - Robotics Lego Robotic Design comp. (TA) Microsoft Corp. (Program Manager)


Research Description

Affective computing is computing that "relates to, arises from or deliberately influences emotions," as defined by R. W. Picard in "Affective Computing," Technical Report #318 (available from tech-reports ). A critical first step toward realizing affective computing is affect recognition. My research involves dectecting affect through physiological responses and creating an intelligent agent to recognize and respond to affective state.

Wearable computers are a powerful tool for researching affective computing. Seated at a desktop, usually in a work environment, we do not often show the full range of our emotional reactions. To determine a persons response to extreme stress, a computer must be able to record a person's physiological response over an entire day. A lightweight, minimally intrusive wearable computer running an affect recognition agent could continuously monitor and analyze an individual's response to stress. The could also learn to tailor it's response to the individual in these situations.

Interests
Juggling, Fifth East, Hacking, Hi-Fi Stereo Equipment

Birthplace
Milwaukee, WI

A favorite book
Sixth Column by Robert Heinlein

Most wishes to have dinner with
Michele Frame (Microsoft Mentor)


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