Socially acting cognitive systems for assessing the need for help

Project partner

• Professorship of Artificial Intelligence
• Professorship of Computational Physics
• Professorship of Computer Graphics and Visualization

Funding

The European Social Fund

Duration

07/2016-06/2019

Topics

The demographic development in Saxony towards a higher average age coupled with the growing technologization of today's everyday world raises the challenge to facilitate the usage of technology for older users. However, age is not an unequivocal indicator for the need of help regarding technology use, because levels of experience and competence vary markedly between users. In order to meet the demands of a large range of potential users (i.e., various levels of age and competence), adaptive systems (i.e., systems which are able to detect the users' abilities and adjust accordingly) are needed. Thus, the aim of the project is the development of a social-cognitive system to assess he need of help by analyzing observable data such as facial expression, language, body posture and movement.

Within the interdisciplinary junior researcher group, researchers from computer science, physics and psychology work together to identify criteria to assess the need for help and implement them into a cognitive system which is able to learn through feedback. In this regard, the researchers are guided by a close to everyday life sample application. The focus of the Department of Cognitive and Engineering Psychology lies on the experimental deduction of indicators for the need of help, the empirical system validation and the conclusive evaluation of user acceptance.