Rosalind Picard

Rosalind Picard

Rosalind W. Picard (born May 17, 1962 in Massachusetts) is Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT, director and also the founder of the Affective Computing Research Group at the MIT Media Lab, co-director of the Things That Think Consortium, and chief scientist and co-founder of Affectiva. In 2005, she was named a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Picard is credited with starting the branch of computer science known as affective computing with the publication of Affective Computing. This textbook described the importance that recognizing human emotions has to relationships between people, and the possible effects of such recognition by robots. Her work in this field has led to an expansion into autism research and developing devices that could help humans recognize nuances in human emotions.