Rosalind Picard

Rosalind Wright Picard (born May 17, 1962) is an American scholar and inventor who is Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT, founder and director of the Affective Computing Research Group at the MIT Media Lab, and co-founder of the startups Affectiva and Empatica.

She has received many recognitions for her research and inventions.

Picard holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering with highest honors and a certificate in computer engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology (1984), and master's (1986) and doctorate degrees (1991), both in electrical engineering and computer science, from MIT.

Her thesis was titled Texture Modeling: Temperature Effects on Markov/Gibbs Random Fields.

She has been a member of the faculty at the MIT Media Laboratory since 1991, with tenure since 1998 and a full professorship since 2005.

Picard is a researcher in the field of affective computing and the founder and director of the Affective Computing Research Group at the MIT Media Lab.

The Affective Computing Research Group develops tools, techniques, and devices for sensing, interpreting, and processing emotion signals that drive state-of-the-art systems that respond intelligently to human emotional states.

Applications of their research include improved tutoring systems and assistive technology for use in addressing the verbal communications difficulties experienced by individuals with autism.

She also works with Sherry Turkle and Cynthia Breazeal in the field of social robots, and has published significant work in the areas of digital image processing, pattern recognition, and wearable computers.

Picard's former students include Steve Mann, professor and researcher in wearable computers.

Picard is Faculty Chair of the MIT MindHandHeart Initiative, a "coalition of students, faculty, and staff [...] working collaboratively and strategically to strengthen the fabric of [the] MIT community."

While working in the field of affective computing, Picard published Affective Computing.

MIT's press release for Picard's textbook states, "According to Rosalind Picard, if we want computers to be genuinely intelligent and to interact naturally with us, we must give computers the ability to recognize, understand, even to have and express emotions".

Picard explains the need to monitor emotional cues and how this is present with humans when she states:

But such emotional cues are not part of robotic intelligence.

In order to portray how such a recognition would alter interactions with robots, Picard gave an example situation:

In such a situation, it is necessary for the robots to understand the emotional aspects of humans in order to better serve their intended purpose.

Her work has influenced many fields beyond computer science, ranging from video games to law.

One critic, Aaron Sloman, described the book as having a "bold vision" that will inspire some and irritate others.

Other critics emphasize the importance behind the work as it establishes an important framework for the field as a whole.

Picard responded to Sloman's review by saying, "I don't think the review captures the flavor of the book. However, he does raise interesting points, as well as potential misunderstandings, both of which I am grateful for the opportunity to comment on".

Picard is credited with starting the branch of computer science known as affective computing with her 1997 book of the same name.

This book described the importance of emotion in intelligence, the vital role human emotion communication has to relationships between people, and the possible effects of emotion recognition by robots and wearable computers.

Her work in this field has led to an expansion into autism research and developing devices that could help humans recognize nuances in human emotions.

In 2005, she was named a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers for contributions to image and video analysis and affective computing.

In 2009, Picard co-founded Affectiva, along with Rana el Kaliouby, and became the company's chief scientist for the next four years.

The company was based on technologies the two began developing at the Affective Computing Research Group within the MIT Media Lab.

She revealed parts of this technology at the 11th Annual International Symposium on Wearable Computers.

Picard has put forward theories to improve the research of emotions through the implementation of new technologies with a focus to gather emotional information outside of a lab setting.

With devices that can measure heart-rate, electrodermal activity, and other physiological changes, and that are non-obtrusive and simple to wear (Picard uses an example of the iCalm sensor) emotional responses can be more accurately observed in a real life.

She also argues against nomothetic research over idiographic research when it comes to studying emotions claiming that an individualized approach would be more fruitful than just throwing out data when a group correlation is not found.

In April 2014, Picard co-founded Empatica, Inc, a business creating wearable sensors and analytics to help people understand and communicate physiological changes involved in emotion.

Her team showed that physiological changes in the emotion system could help identify seizures that might be life-threatening.

Besides researching robotic intelligence, Picard has performed research in the field of autism.

Her team created an "emotional-social intelligence prosthesis" (ESP), that allowed a person diagnosed with autism to monitor their own facial reactions in order to educate them on social cues in others.

This device had a 65% accuracy rate for reading one of eight emotional states from an individual's facial expressions and head movements.

In 2019 she received one of the highest professional honors accorded an engineer, election to the National Academy of Engineering for her contributions on affective computing and wearable computing.

In 2021 she was recognized as a Fellow of the ACM for contributions to physiological signal sensing for individual health and wellbeing.

In 2021 she was elected to the National Academy of Inventors, which recognizes outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development and the welfare of society.

In 2022 she was awarded the International Lombardy Prize for Computer Science Research, which carries a €1 million award, which she donated to support digital health and neurology research to help save the lives of people with epilepsy and children susceptible to sudden infant death syndrome.