Emotional avatars, unemotional computers

A Ph.D. student at the University of Basque Country in Spain has presented a thesis arguing that avatars can improve computer communications by getting across the sorts of emotional information typically lost in regular computer interactions. Research shows that more than half of transmitting a message successfully to someone face to face involves facial expressions and body language.

Separately, a University of Sussex-led study found that the human brain responds much more strongly to music played by a musician rather than by a computer. "Our results suggest that musicians actually tell us something when they play The brain responses show that when a pianist plays a piece with emotional expression, the piece is actually perceived as meaningful by listeners, even if they have not received any formal musical training," said Dr. Stefan Koelsch, who worked on the study at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig.