Toward a Taxonomy of Affective Computing

Affective computing, which is the topic concerned with the design of emotionally intelligent machines, has been a growing area of interest in the field of human–computer interaction. Many of the current questions in the field will need to be answered in order for progress to be made toward a truly affective computing platform. The current article seeks to summarize much of the existing research in affective computing focused in three primary areas: affective generation, affective understanding, and application. A taxonomy of affective computing applications is then proposed in an effort to help organize the efforts of researchers and designers alike. This taxonomy contains a hierarchy of five tiers: the purpose or goal of the system, the level of integration, the method of affective understanding, the method of affective generation, and the platform of use. The article concludes by highlighting several key issues that the field of affective computing faces moving forward.