Nadia Berthouze

Nadia Berthouze is a Professor at the University College London Interaction Centre. She received her PhD in computer science from the University of Milano. From 1996 to 2000 she has been a postdoc fellow at the Electrotechnical laboratory in Japan working in the area of Kansei Engineering. From 2000 to 2006, she was a lecturer in computer science at the University of Aizu in Japan. Her main area of expertise is the study of body posture/movement as a modality for recognising, modulating and measuring human affective states in HCI. She has published more than 170 papers in affective computing, HCI, and pattern recognition. She was awarded the 2003 Technical Prize from the Japanese Society of Kansei Engineering and she has been invited to give a TEDxStMartin talk (2012). She is/was: PI on the EPSRC-funded Emo&Pain project to design affective technology to support rehabilitation in chronic pain; co-I on the EPSRC-funded Digital Sensoria project investigating the use of biosensors to measure subjective responses to tactile experiences; co-I on the ILHAIRE project investigating laughter in human-avatar interaction; EU-FP7 Marie Curie IRSES UBI-HEALTH: Exchange of Excellence in Ubiquitous Computing Technologies to Address Healthcare Challenges.

Title: Empowering everyday physical rehabilitation through affective-aware sensing technology

Abstract:
The emergence of low-cost full-body sensing technology has opened new possibilities to support physical rehabilitation in long-term conditions. Building on lessons learnt from the EPSRC-funded interdisciplinary Emo&Pain project (www. emo-pain.ac.uk), I will discuss how such technology could lead to more effective physical rehabilitation through integrating it in everyday activities and supporting users at both physical and psychological levels. I will also discuss how this sensing technology allows us to go beyond simply measuring and reflecting on one’s behaviour by exploiting embodied bottom-up mechanisms that enhance the perception of one’s body and its capabilities. In doing so, I will also highlight the challenges we need to address.