22 August 2025
09:00 Doctoral defense By video conference
Topic on
A Socioenactive System Empowered by AI Studied through Emotional Contagion Phenomenon
Student
Geovanna Evelyn Espinoza Taype
Advisor / Teacher
Julio Cesar dos Reis - Co-advisor: Maria Cecilia Calani Baranauskas
Brief summary
Socioenactive systems are emerging in the field of Human-Computer Interaction, offering innovative ways for people and computer systems to interact. At the same time, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is advancing rapidly and is increasingly being integrated into computer systems. In this study, we combine these two approaches to create a socioenative system with AI, allowing the system to act autonomously. This allows the system to make its own decisions in a natural way, adjusting its actions based on the emotional neurophysiological reactions and bodily engagement of humans. We deepen the understanding of socioenative theory to reinforce and contribute to the foundations of the socioenative approach. We first review the main concepts, history, and related works in the areas of socioenative systems, AI, and emotional contagion. This review allowed us to identify gaps in the current literature regarding the integration of these three domains. To fill these gaps, we propose the construction of an AI-enabled socioenative system that promotes socioemotional interactions to study the phenomenon of emotional contagion. To achieve this goal, we first conducted a study to build a dataset of emotional states based on brainwave data. This dataset was used to train an AI model capable of recognizing emotional states from human neurophysiological signals. We then designed and developed a socioenactive system by incorporating the trained AI model into it. To evaluate the system, we held a workshop with participants from different nationalities. We collected a wide range of data, including brainwave activity, heart rate, participant questionnaires, drawings made by participants, video recordings of facial and postural expressions, system interaction logs, and other relevant data. We analyzed these data to explore the socioemotional interactions elicited in participants and deepen our understanding of the phenomenon of emotional contagion. The result showed that the phenomenon of emotional contagion emerged when participants interacted with each other through the socioenative system. As a result of this work, we materialized and proposed a framework for building AI-embedded socioenative systems. This framework describes phases, steps, and activities to guide the development process. Additionally, it includes artifacts to support a better understanding of the key concepts behind the socio-enactive approach.
Examination Board
Headlines:
| Julio Cesar dos Reis | IC / UNICAMP |
| Marcelo Morandini | EACH / USP |
| Leonardo Cunha de Miranda | CCET/UFRN |
| Flavia Linhalis | NIED / UNICAMP |
| Hermes Renato Hildebrand | IA / UNICAMP |
Substitutes:
| André Constantino da Silva | IFSP |
| Breno Bernard Nicolau de França | IC / UNICAMP |
| Ricardo Edgard Caceffo | UNIVESP |
| Diego Addan Gonçalves | DInf / UFPR |