journal article·2020-04-23Open access

Thermal Infrared Imaging-Based Affective Computing and Its Application to Facilitate Human Robot Interaction: A Review

Chiara Filippini, David Perpetuini, Daniela Cardone, Antonio Maria Chiarelli, Arcangelo Merla

Applied Sciences· Volume 10· Issue 8

Abstract

Over recent years, robots are increasingly being employed in several aspects of modern society. Among others, social robots have the potential to benefit education, healthcare, and tourism. To achieve this purpose, robots should be able to engage humans, recognize users’ emotions, and to some extent properly react and "behave" in a natural interaction. Most robotics applications primarily use visual information for emotion recognition, which is often based on facial expressions. However, the display of emotional states through facial expression is inherently a voluntary controlled process that is typical of human–human interaction. In fact, humans have not yet learned to use this channel when communicating with a robotic technology. Hence, there is an urgent need to exploit emotion information channels not directly controlled by humans, such as those that can be ascribed to physiological modulations. Thermal infrared imaging-based affective computing has the potential to be the solution to such an issue. It is a validated technology that allows the non-obtrusive monitoring of physiological parameters and from which it might be possible to infer affective states. This review is aimed to outline the advantages and the current research challenges of thermal imaging-based affective computing for human–robot interaction.
Source: crossref · Quality: baseline

Research context

OpenAlex topics: Emotion and Mood Recognition · EEG and Brain-Computer Interfaces · Non-Invasive Vital Sign Monitoring

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

Department of Neuroscience and Imaging, Institute for Advanced Biomedical Technologies, University G. D’Annunzio of Chieti-Pescara, Via Luigi Polacchi 13, 66100 Chieti, Italy

Next2U s.r.l., Via dei Peligni 137, 65127 Pescara, Italy

Funding

PON SI-ROBOTICS · PON ADAS+

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