Professor Peter Robinson with Charles the robot

A TEAM of Cambridge University researchers are taking steps to bring the emotions of humans and computers closer together.

Led by Professor Peter Robinson, the team at the computer laboratory is exploring how computers can be developed to react to human emotion the way one friend would speaking to another.

They have released a video on Youtube, The Emotional Computer, in which Professor Robinson develops a human satellite navigation system, Charles, that responds to Professor Robinson’s traffic concerns complete with facial expressions.

“We’re building emotionally intelligent computers, ones that can read my mind and know how I feel,” said Professor Robinson. “Computers are really good at understanding what someone is typing or even saying. But they need to understand not just what I’m saying, but how I’m saying it.”

The team is working closely with Professor Simon Baron-Cohen’s team in the university’s autism research because their researchers study the difficulties people may have in understanding emotions - their insights could help address the same problems in computers.

To see the video visit www.youtube.com/cambridgeuniversity.