Smart environment architecture for emotion detection and regulation

Abstract

This paper introduces an architecture as a proof-of-concept for emotion detection and regulation in smart health environments. The aim of the proposal is to detect the patient's emotional state by analysing his/her physiological signals, facial expression and behaviour. Then, the system provides the best-tailored actions in the environment to regulate these emotions towards a positive mood when possible. The current state-of-the-art in emotion regulation through music and colour/light is implemented with the final goal of enhancing the quality of life and care of the subject. The paper describes the three main parts of the architecture, namely "Emotion Detection", "Emotion Regulation" and "Emotion Feedback Control". "Emotion Detection" works with the data captured from the patient, whereas "Emotion Regulation" offers him/her different musical pieces and colour/light settings. "Emotion Feedback Control" performs as a feedback control loop to assess the effect of emotion regulation over emotion detection. We are currently testing the overall architecture and the intervention in real environments to achieve our final goal.

Keywords: Ambient intelligence; Emotion detection; Emotion regulation; Health environment; Smart environment.