Inventions on expressing emotions In Graphical User Interface

The graphical user interface has brought great values in the field of human computer interface. However, the conventional GUI is more mechanical and does not recognize or communicate emotions. The modern GUIs are trying to infer the likely emotional state and personality of the user and communicate through a corresponding emotional state. Emotions can be expressed in graphical icons, sounds, pictures and other means. Icons are very popularly used to do this job. An icon is a small pictorial representation of some larger set of information. Icons are designed to trigger, through visual perception, operator concepts that communicate the content or operation of the system in a quick manner. The emotions are found to be useful in especially in communication software, interactive learning systems and other adaptive environments. The field of robotics uses emotions very deeply. Various mechanisms have been developed to express emotions through graphical user interfaces. This article will illustrate some interesting inventions selected from US patent database. Background problem The popularity of computer and Internet has made the graphical user interface more advanced. Using emotions in graphical user interface can improve the functionality of the interface. There is a need to display emotions on the GUI represented by facial expressions. Solution provided by the invention Patent 5732232 (invented by Brush II et al., assigned by IBM, issued March 1998) provides a display mechanism for showing human emotion on a computer by showing a face. The invention shows a two-dimensional emotion graph on the screen. The user clicks on a point on the graph by using a mouse or so. When the user chooses the point on the plane the method translates the point into an appropriate value and generates a human face using the manipulation and positioning of the eyes, eyebrows and mouth. TRIZ based analysis The invention uses the picture of a human face on the graphical user interface to express emotion to the computer (Principle-28: Mechanics substitution). The invention converts a point on the graph to a human face showing a particular emotion (Principle-36: Conversion). Background problem Generally a sign language is used to describe public information like how to handle an ATM used in banks, equipments in trains and flights, and other equipments in public places. Normally there has been a general method of displaying a sign language by showing different pictures and photographs. In this case one sentence of spoken language may correspond …