Summary
Contents
Subject index
What happens when media technologies are able to interpret our feelings, emotions, moods, and intentions? In this cutting edge new book, Andrew McStay explores that very question and argues that these abilities result in a form of technological empathy. Offering a balanced and incisive overview of the issues raised by ‘Emotional AI’, this book: • Provides a clear account of the social benefits and drawbacks of new media trends and technologies such as emoji, wearables and chatbots • Demonstrates through empirical research how ‘empathic media’ have been developed and introduced both by start-ups and global tech corporations such as Facebook • Helps readers understand the potential implications on everyday life and social relations through examples such as video-gaming, facial coding, virtual reality and cities • Calls for a more critical approach to the rollout of emotional AI in public and private spheres Combining established theory with original analysis, this book will change the way students view, use and interact with new technologies. It should be required reading for students and researchers in media, communications, the social sciences and beyond.
Personal Technologies that Feel: Towards a Novel form of Intimacy
Personal Technologies that Feel: Towards a Novel form of Intimacy
Wearable gadgets, Internet of Things (IoT) devices and the wider subject of self-tracking have received significant scholarly attention, but here I will focus on a specific aspect of bodily sensing: personal devices that feel-into emotional life. This chapter first outlines the historical, conceptual and technical contexts to these technologies. It then explores these in relation to health, wellbeing, work and sex. To account for these topics I draw upon case examples and interviews from Verily Life Sciences (of the Alphabet/Google group), Emotiv (an EEG headset manufacturer), SharpBrains (that researches neuro-technology), Spire (a developer of emotion-sensing wearables for work), Mysteryvibe (a sex-tech developer), RealDoll (a sex ...
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