Robots could be trained to recognise human emotions, finds study

The study was conducted by researchers form Warwick Business School, University of Plymouth, Donders Centre for Cognition at Radboud University in the Netherlands, and the Bristol Robotics Lab

A new study published in the journal Frontiers in Robotics and AI, robots could be taught to recognise human emotions from our movements. As part of this exercise, a team of psychologists and computer scientists filmed pairs of children playing with a robot and a computer built into a table with a touchscreen top. Some participants watched the original videos. A second group saw the footage reduced to “stickman” figures that showed exactly the same movements. Members of both groups agreed on the same emotional label for the children, more often than would be expected if they were guessing. The researchers then trained a machine-learning algorithm to label the clips, identifying the type of social interaction, the emotions on display, and the strength of each child’s internal state, allowing it to compare which child felt more sad or excited. The study was conducted by researchers form Warwick Business School, University of Plymouth, Donders Centre for Cognition at Radboud University in the Netherlands, and the Bristol Robotics Lab at the University of the West of England.

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