In the future, PCs, like presidents, may be able to feel your
pain. Or at least they'll recognize it, thanks to new software
that lets computers observe and react to users' emotions. Such
"emotional intelligence" is the subject of Rosalind Picard's
book Affective Computing (MIT Press, 1997). Picard, NEC
Development Professor of Computers and Communications at MIT's
Media Lab, argues that our work lives would be more productive
and humane if computers could read and respond to our moods. Say
a new computer-based training program has an employee on the
verge of tears. A PC reading his or her expression might respond
by slowing the program's pace. Affective computing software can
"sense" emotions in several ways. It might, for example, work
with a digital video camera that records when a user smiles or
frowns. Picard is also experimenting with glasses that track
eyebrow movements and a mouse that senses how hard it is being
clicked. Those devices feed information to a system that
contains rules about nonverbal c