held in conjunction with ACII 2015
Xi'an, China
September 21-24, 2015
 
Update: The review procedure is finalized now. Of 11 submissions, we selected 6 manuscripts for the workshop.  Additionally, we are happy to announce an invited talk by Dr. Anne-Marie Brouwer. We believe, that the quality and range of the contributions will make the workshop a very worthwhile event! You can find the tentative schedule here
 
The goal of the aBCI workshop series is to connect researchers from the communities of affective computing, social signal processing, brain computer interfacing, neuro-ergonomics, and neuroscience around the federating theme of affective brain computer interfaces (aBCI). Affective BCI aim at the development of human-computer interfaces able to react and adapt to users' emotions and related cognitive states as measured from neurophysiological signals. With its developmet in the last years, the aBCI topic is now  prominent in the recently published EU roadmap for BCI systems.
Besides the general solicitation of work toward adaptive HCI applications based on aBCI, this 4th edition of the workshop will focus on two specific aspects of aBCI. Firstly, we welcome papers on ways to alleviate current aBCI limitations, through work on the physiological basis of aBCI, innovative applications resilient to classification error, and methods to increase the robustness of aBCI. Secondly, we would like to explore the social aspects and applications of aBCI by welcoming submissions on topics such as multi-user aBCI and the assessment of social processes from brain signals.
 
Submissions to the aBCI workshop can cover the following topics:

  • emotion elicitation and data collection in social settings;
  • identification of innovative markers of emotional, cognitive and social processes;
  • methods for the assessment of social interactions;
  • mutual awareness of physiological states;
  • applications of brain and peripheral signals to social situations;
  • innovative concepts for adaptive interfaces and affective BCI;
  • demos of social and/or affective BCI systems.

 
The aBCI workshop in more details

The goal of the aBCI workshop series is to connect researchers from the communities of affective computing, social signal processing, brain computer interfacing, neuro-ergonomics, and neuroscience to discuss state-of-the-art progress and to determine common interests to spur inter-disciplinary collaborations.
The human mind – and hence the brain – is fascinating in its complexity and its exploration holds many promises for  the development of mankind. Brain-computer interfaces (BCI) have been developed to gain access to the neurological information and to use this information for the direct control of machines. Affective BCI (aBCI) aim at the development of interfaces able to react to users' emotions and cognitive states as measured from neurophysiological signals.
Hence, aBCI lie at the frontier between affective / cognitive neuroscience and affective computing. In the last 10 years, aBCI - often employed in parallel with other physiological measurements such as heart rate measures and electro-dermal activity - have been pushed forward by the development of affordable and non-intrusive sensors which can be easily applied and operated by non-clinicians and private customers. Currently, these devices are mainly used to control computer games and to support relaxation training. However, their potential is far greater – from complementing health technology, through personalizing entertainment solutions to increasing workplace safety – assuming that they outgrow the limitations still imposed on them by a lack of robust indicators of affect, a relatively low reliability and a high susceptibility to artifacts. Therefore, we focus in this workshop edition on ways to alleviate these limitations, through work on the physiological basis of aBCI, innovative applications resilient to classification error, and methods to increase the robustness of aBCI.
Furthermore, we would like to explore the social aspects and applications of aBCI. Thanks to recent research in social signal processing, intelligent interactive systems will soon be able to better understand and react not only to the users’ emotions and cognitive states, but also to more complex social interactions where several users are interacting together through the machine. At the same time social neuroscience is switching from single and passive participant studies to the recording of several participants during tasks that involve active social interactions. While the former approach allowed identifying brain structures and activity involved in social interactions, multi-participant studies allow analyzing how information can flow from one brain to another and defining new markers of social processes, as involved in mentalizing, collaborating and collective decision-making. Given the converging interests of neuroscience and computer science researchers toward emotions and social interactions, we encourage submissions related to the following research questions: How to measure and employ multi-person brain and physiological activities for the assessment of the social interaction quality and the underlying emotional/social processes? How can BCI technology support social situations?