AC'05: Workshop on Affective Computing - Towards Affective Intelligent Systems

Almost forty years ago, Herbert Simon emphasised the role of emotions in problem solving. Nevertheless, until recently, research on intelligent systems has traditionally been focused on the development of theories and techniques mostly inspired on what was considered the "rational" aspects of human behavior. But findings from neuroscience (such as by Dama'sio and LeDoux's) and psychology suggesting that emotions are a leading part of what is considered intelligent behavior, has brought the role of emotions into the limelight. Furthermore, the work by R. Picard, and the creation of the area of Affective Computing, has provided the right frame for research and develop new intelligent systems. Emotions can further be considered, not only as essential for problem solving techniques in intelligent systems but also allow for the construction of systems that interact with humans in more natural and humanlike manner. Also, the increasing attention given to Agentoriented programming makes it more relevant the enhancement of agent deliberation on the grounds of both rationality and emotionality. This workshop combines a set of papers where the role of affect in the construction of intelligent systems is discussed, and techniques for building such systems are provided. Furthermore, one of the goals of the workshop is to bring together not only researchers from Al and agents, but also from different disciplines such as psychology, robotics, graphics and animation, in a forum to discuss the creation of emotional systems. Focusing on areas such as Emotion theories and their impact on computational models of intelligence, on Affective reasoning and affective planning among others, we expect that this workshop will contribute for the area of Affective Computing to be placed as one of the emerging subfields of Al.