Introduction to Affective Computing: Designing Emotion-Aware Systems

As technology becomes deeply integrated into our daily lives, the demand for systems that understand not just what we say, but how we feel, is growing rapidly. Affective computing bridges the gap between human emotion and computer science, transforming how we interact with technology. This course provides a comprehensive introduction to building systems that can detect, process, and respond to human affective states. In this course, you will transition from understanding basic psychological models of emotion to conceptualizing intelligent, empathetic systems. Through clear written explanations and structured theory, you will explore how technology interprets human signals. What you'll learn: - Understand the core psychological theories of emotion and their mathematical representations. - Explore how systems process facial expressions, vocal cues, and physiological signals. - Learn key techniques for multimodal data fusion to combine different sensory inputs. - Study modern machine learning approaches used to classify and predict emotional states. - Evaluate critical ethical challenges, including user privacy, algorithmic bias, and data security. The course begins with foundational definitions of affect and emotion before guiding you through data collection, feature extraction, and machine learning models. You will finish with a solid grasp of how to design responsible, emotion-aware applications. This course is designed for beginners, software developers, and UX designers interested in human-computer interaction. No prior background in psychology or advanced AI is required. Start your journey into affective computing today and learn to design technology that truly understands human emotion.