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New computer art mirrors viewer’s mood

Researchers from universities in America and England have developed a new software program that translates peoples’ emotions into computer-generated artwork. The technology is still in its infancy and analyses only eight basic facial expressions, including the position and shape of the mouth, the openness of the eyes and the angle of the eyes. These visual cues are picked up by a web cam and are used to make an approximation of the emotional state of the viewer. The application uses the data it gathers to select hues and types of brush strokes as each expression alters. Lead researcher Dr. John Collomosse of the University of Bath in southwest England said the technology "does all of this in real time, meaning that as the viewer's emotions change, the artwork responds accordingly".

Collomosse calls his experiments “empathic painting”. He said: “Once you have the programme and have calibrated it for the individual viewer, you are ready to start recreating personalized art based on your mood." The project is part of ongoing research that is aimed at developing a range of advanced artwork tools for use in the computer graphics industry. It may also have practical uses in other fields. Practitioners in the realms of neurology and psychology could apply the software in determining the psychological state of patients through the interpretation of the computer-generated images. It may also provide a little more pizzazz to the mundaneness of our humdrum lives by automatically placing uplifting artwork in front of us wherever we go. No more gloomy faces on the daily commute.

WARM-UPS

1. MY COMPUTER: With your partner(s), talk about how important your computer is to you.  How does it help you in your life? What other things would you like it to do? When you have finished, find a new partner and report on what you talked about.

2. CHAT: In pairs / groups, decide which of these topics or words from the article are most interesting and which are most boring.

Researchers / software / artwork / facial expressions / mouth shapes / emotions / brush strokes / moods / computer graphics / pizzazz / humdrum life / commuting

Have a chat about the topics you liked. For more conversation, change topics and partners frequently.

3. MOOD ART: Imagine your computer can read your feelings and display artwork to reflect your mood. With your partner(s), describe the kind of artwork that might be displayed on your computer screen in the following situations. Change partner(s) and share what you talked about.

You passed all your exams You think a burglar is in your house You have a pounding headache You are head over heels in love

You can’t connect to the Internet A giant spider walks across your desk George W. Bush just resigned Other _______________________

4. QUICK DEBATE: Students A believe computers are our friends and can help us emotionally. Students B believe computers are just machines that add to our stress. Debate this with your partners. Change partners often.

5. HEADLINES: With your partner(s), talk about the following imaginary newspaper headlines. What do you think of them? Is it possible they might come true one day? Change partners and share your findings.

1. Man marries his computer
2. World’s first computer-for-brain transplant a success
3. Computer becomes president of USA
4. Computers banned by high schools
5. Humans ask computers for better working conditions
6. Europe’s computers disabled by magnet bombs
7. It’s here – World’s first 100GB one-dollar computer
8. Every person in world now online, says UN’s Computers-For-All head

6. ART: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with art. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories.

BEFORE READING / LISTENING

1. TRUE / FALSE: Look at the article’s headline and guess whether these sentences are true (T) or false (F):

a.	A new computer program can paint moody pictures on mirrors.	T / F
b.	The program recognizes eight basic facial positions.	T / F
c.	A person’s mood determines the type of brush stroke chosen.	T / F
d.	It takes several hours for the computer to generate the artwork.	T / F
e.	The program must be calibrated for each individual viewer.	T / F
f.	The program may have uses in neurology and psychology.	T / F
g.	The program may add more pizzazz to our everyday lives.	T / F
h.	The artwork will mean there’ll be more gloomy commuters.	T / F

2. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article:

a.	infancy	changes
b.	hues	tedious
c.	approximation	adjusted
d.	alters	spheres
e.	accordingly	estimate
f.	calibrated	analysis
g.	realms	correspondingly
h.	interpretation	early stages
i.	pizzazz	vitality
j.	humdrum	colors

3. PHRASE MATCH: Match the following phrases from the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):

a.	translates peoples’ emotions	faces on the daily commute
b.	The technology is still	strokes as each expression alters
c.	These visual	psychological state of patients
d.	select hues and types of brush	humdrum lives
e.	as the viewer's emotions change,	cues are picked up by a web cam
f.	ready to start	in its infancy
g.	developing a	recreating personalized art
h.	determining the	the artwork responds accordingly
i.	the mundaneness of our	range of advanced artwork tools
j.	No more gloomy	into computer-generated artwork

WHILE READING / LISTENING

GAP FILL: Put the words in the column on the right into the gaps in the text.

New computer art mirrors viewer’s mood

Researchers from universities in America and England have developed a new software program that ________ peoples’ emotions into computer-generated artwork. The technology is still in its ________ and analyses only eight basic facial expressions, including the position and shape of the mouth, the ________ of the eyes and the angle of the eyes. These visual cues are ________ up by a web cam and are used to make an approximation of the emotional state of the viewer. The application uses the ________ it gathers to select hues and types of brush strokes as each expression ________. Lead researcher Dr. John Collomosse of the University of Bath in southwest England said the technology "does all of this in ________ time, meaning that as the viewer's emotions change, the artwork ________ accordingly".		alters picked infancy real data translates responds openness
Collomosse calls his experiments “________ painting”. He said: “Once you have the programme and have ________ it for the individual viewer, you are ready to start recreating personalized art ________ on your mood." The project is part of ongoing research that is aimed at developing a range of advanced artwork ________ for use in the computer graphics industry. It may also have practical uses in other fields. Practitioners in the ________ of neurology and psychology could apply the software in determining the psychological state of patients through the interpretation of the computer-generated images. It may also provide a little more ________ to the mundaneness of our ________ lives by automatically placing uplifting artwork in front of us wherever we go. No more gloomy faces on the daily ________.		pizzazz tools calibrated commute realms empathic humdrum based

LISTENING

Listen and fill in the spaces.

New computer art mirrors viewer’s mood

Researchers from universities in America and England have developed a new software program that translates ________________ into computer-generated artwork. The technology is still in its infancy and analyses only eight ________________ expressions, including the position and shape of the mouth, the openness of the eyes and the angle of the eyes. These ________________ are picked up by a web cam and are used to make an approximation of the emotional state of the viewer. The application uses the data it gathers to select ________________ of brush strokes as each expression alters. Lead researcher Dr. John Collomosse of the University of Bath in southwest England said the technology "does all of this in real time, meaning that as the viewer's emotions change, the artwork ________________".

Collomosse calls his experiments “empathic painting”. He said: “Once you have the programme and have ________________ for the individual viewer, you are ready to start recreating personalized art based on your mood." The project is part of ongoing research that is aimed at developing a range of advanced artwork tools for use in the computer graphics industry. It may also have practical uses in other fields. Practitioners in ________________ neurology and psychology could apply the software in determining the psychological state of patients through ________________ the computer-generated images. It may also provide a little more pizzazz to the mundaneness of ________________ by automatically placing uplifting artwork in front of us wherever we go. No more ________________ on the daily commute.

AFTER READING / LISTENING

1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words ‘daily’ and ‘commute’.

• Share your findings with your partners.
• Make questions using the words you found.
• Ask your partner / group your questions.

2. ARTICLE QUESTIONS: Look back at the article and write down some questions you would like to ask the class about the text.

• Share your questions with other classmates / groups.
• Ask your partner / group your questions.

3. GAP FILL: In pairs / groups, compare your answers to this exercise. Check your answers. Talk about the words from the activity. Were they new, interesting, worth learning…?

4. VOCABULARY: Circle any words you do not understand. In groups, pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find their meanings.

5. STUDENT “COMPUTER ART” SURVEY: In pairs / groups, write down questions about computers and art, and computers and feelings.

• Ask other classmates your questions and note down their answers.
• Go back to your original partner / group and compare your findings.
• Make mini-presentations to other groups on your findings.

6. TEST EACH OTHER: Look at the words below. With your partner, try to recall exactly how these were used in the text:

translates infancy cues approximation alters responds

empathic viewer fields patients pizzazz gloomy

DISCUSSION

STUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)

1. Did the headline make you want to read the article?
2. What do you think of looking at art on a computer?
3. Do you think computers can really gauge our feelings?
4. How much time would you spend each day looking at art on your computer?
5. Do you think art that matched your feelings would be therapeutic?
6. Would you like all of the computers you pass each day to show art that makes you feel better?
7. Does art in galleries change your mood?
8. What kind of art do you like?
9. What kind of art could be displayed on a computer that you don’t normally see in galleries?
10. Would you buy a software program that always displayed the exact kind of artwork you wanted to look at?

STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)

1. Did you like reading this article?
2. What do you think about what you read?
3. What do you think of the idea of a computer-art doctor, whom you would visit when depressed, feeling stressed, or are generally down?
4. Do you think artwork created by computer graphic artists will form an important new genre in the art world?
5. Would you ever worry about the kinds of artwork the computer displayed that matched your mood?
6. What do you think of the idea of printing the computer art and showing it to your colleagues and friends each morning?
7. Would you rather look at a piece of artwork a computer has chosen to enhance your mood or a scene of beauty from nature?
8. Do you think electronic art could be used to help people pass exams, speak better in public, learn languages better or other things?
9. If you could look at the artwork that matches someone’s feelings, whose computer-generated images would you like to see and why?
10. Did you like this discussion?

AFTER DISCUSSION: Join another partner / group and tell them what you talked about.

1. What was the most interesting thing you heard?
2. Was there a question you didn’t like?
3. Was there something you totally disagreed with?
4. What did you like talking about?
5. Which was the most difficult question?

SPEAKING

COMPUTER ART: With your partner(s), analyze the significance of the following images that have been created by a computer. What is the person’s state of mind in each case?

	Significance	State of Mind
Person A George W. Bush sitting on a giant red banana
Person B Two cute puppy dogs trying to read an English newspaper
Person C A toilet burning on top of Mount Everest
Person D A golden beach covered with chocolate and strawberries
Other ____________ ____________ ____________

Change partners and exchange your ideas. Decide on who has the best explanations.

HOMEWORK

1. VOCABULARY EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or Google’s search field (or another search engine) to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find more information about the electronic artwork that reflects peoples’ moods. Talk about what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson.

3. POSTER: Make a poster advertising the benefits of new electronic art software that creates images to make you feel better. Show your poster to your classmates in the next lesson.

4. ART DIARY: Make a diary that includes artwork that reflects your feelings for one day. Show your diary to your classmates in the next lesson. Which diary did you like best and why?

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

a. F

b. T

c. T

d. F

e. T

f. T

g. T

h. F

SYNONYM MATCH:

a.	infancy	early stages
b.	hues	colors
c.	approximation	estimate
d.	alters	changes
e.	accordingly	correspondingly
f.	calibrated	adjusted
g.	realms	spheres
h.	interpretation	analysis
i.	pizzazz	vitality
j.	humdrum	tedious

PHRASE MATCH:

a.	translates peoples’ emotions	into computer-generated artwork
b.	The technology is still	in its infancy
c.	These visual	cues are picked up by a web cam
d.	select hues and types of brush	strokes as each expression alters
e.	as the viewer's emotions change,	the artwork responds accordingly
f.	ready to start	recreating personalized art
g.	developing a	range of advanced artwork tools
h.	determining the	psychological state of patients
i.	the mundaneness of our	humdrum lives
j.	No more gloomy	faces on the daily commute

GAP FILL:

New computer art mirrors viewer’s mood

Researchers from universities in America and England have developed a new software program that translates peoples’ emotions into computer-generated artwork. The technology is still in its infancy and analyses only eight basic facial expressions, including the position and shape of the mouth, the openness of the eyes and the angle of the eyes. These visual cues are picked up by a web cam and are used to make an approximation of the emotional state of the viewer. The application uses the data it gathers to select hues and types of brush strokes as each expression alters. Lead researcher Dr. John Collomosse of the University of Bath in southwest England said the technology "does all of this in real time, meaning that as the viewer's emotions change, the artwork responds accordingly".

Collomosse calls his experiments “empathic painting”. He said: “Once you have the programme and have calibrated it for the individual viewer, you are ready to start recreating personalized art based on your mood." The project is part of ongoing research that is aimed at developing a range of advanced artwork tools for use in the computer graphics industry. It may also have practical uses in other fields. Practitioners in the realms of neurology and psychology could apply the software in determining the psychological state of patients through the interpretation of the computer-generated images. It may also provide a little more pizzazz to the mundaneness of our humdrum lives by automatically placing uplifting artwork in front of us wherever we go. No more gloomy faces on the daily commute.

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