The Promise of Affective Computing

This chapter is adapted from an invited introduction written for the first issue of the IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing, telling personal stories and sharing viewpoints of a pioneer and visionary of the field of Affective Computing. This is not intended to be a thorough or a historical account of the development of the field for the author is not a historian and cannot begin to properly credit the extraordinary efforts of hundreds of people who helped bring this field into fruition. Instead, this chapter recounts experiences that contribute to this history, with an eye toward eliciting some of the pleasurable affective and cognitive responses that will be a part of the promise of Affective Computing.