Project > Broader Impact of Project

This project has the potential for major impact in a number of different areas.

Technical: It will advance knowledge on basic issues involved in tracking human activity (facial expression, voice characteristics, body movement and postural adjustment, task-related activities) and affective expression (producing expressive face, movement and voice characteristics). More importantly, it will contribute to the integration of multiple indicators for automatic detection and tracking of human states, and will lay the groundwork for future work on user-state-based action decisions and their implementations.

Science education and underrepresented groups: Finding ways by which the computer can involve and excite young people about science, particularly women and minorities who have typically been less interested, would be a major contribution to society. Furthermore, methods found to accomplish this in science education are likely to suggest related methods in other areas of study.

Next generation computer environment: The development and demonstration of proactive computing methods will contribute to a new, friendlier, and more efficient computer environment, particularly for those who are presently timid and insecure with computers. The Integration Support Lab itself will stimulate work toward this end.

Rich, labeled corpus of video and audio records of children engaged in learning: We will make available to other researchers the corpus of videotaped actions of children using Lego materials, temporally labeled for emotional and other responses and for tutor interaction type. These materials can be extremely valuable for training computer learning systems of various types.

Training of students and post-docs: Each year, at least 12 graduate students and 2 post-docs will be supported by this project as part of their training. Other non-supported students typically get involved in projects of this type, as well. Engineering and computer science students will have direct experience working with education/psychology students on human behavior issues, and education/psychology students will gain technical expertise. We will particularly need female and minority students who can facilitate research with children from these groups.

Enhancement of infrastructure for education: This project requires the further development of Beckman's Integration Support Laboratory in which a broad, multi-modal range of technologies is brought together. This facility does, and will, provide a unique environment for behavioral research of educators/psychologists and technical research of engineers/computer scientists. It should provide both the base and the stimulus for a series of exciting dissertations.

Dissemination: Results from this project will be disseminated widely through professional conferences and journal publications, including those in engineering, computer science, education and psychology. In addition, Beckman Institute hosts many national and international visitors and professional meetings; our Integration Support Lab is already becoming a featured stop on Beckman Institute tours.