Quantifying Human Experience for Increased Intelligence Within Work Teams and in the Customer Interface

WHY?

At the moment, rapid technological advancement is redefining what this intelligent problem-solving is in the context of work.

As the complexity of business environments grows and cycles accelerate, the cognitive demands of knowledge work increase.

The role of human intelligence, alongside the artificial, is radically transformed.

Productive work is intelligent problem-solving, which always combines to differing degrees technology, human intelligence, and

social attribution of value.

TECHNOLOGY

COGNITIONCONNECTION

Humans will create most value in difficult problem-solving, and tasks that require skills which are difficult to automate (creative thinking, cognitive flexibility, learning, and interaction skills).

Human work will heavily emphasize interaction and require deeper understanding of fellow human beings than ever before.

Emotions are a highly overlooked source of information that is vital for true understanding of another human being, i.e. empathy.

Misunderstandings are common in computer-mediated interaction.

Problem-solving in teams and interaction in customer service is impeded.

Problem 1: Digital tools used for interaction are suboptimal

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The structures that guide work do not support good interaction quality.

A lot of information that could be vital for designing successful services, products and for promoting problem-solving in teams is unavailable or overlooked.

Problem 2: Current state of understanding in companies about interaction is not where the

science is at the moment

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Examples

Interaction in Skype meetings is not nearly as effective as in face-to-face meetings.

Distributed teams relying on instant messaging, email and other text-based communication are more prone to misunderstandings because important information on true meaning and intent is missing.

Service and product design that do not have access to information about the emotions of customers result in solutions that less accurately respond to customer needs.

Luckily, development of sensor technology and machine vision has multiplied the amount of available data that could be used to improve

and inform human activities.

Making use of the sciences and technologies of emotion and interaction would provide a powerful way to respond to the specific

business challenges posed by technological advancement.

WHY NOW?

Emotion analytics and aggregate data on human activities are being included in service design and content of leading software companies such as Facebook and Google.

This trend heavily supports the notion that emotion analytics, human-centered approaches, empathy-enabling structures at work and collective intelligence will be future key areas of development in business.

Understanding on the technology, methodology and their possible application areas is going to be critical for the success of any business.

1. It’s already happening

Increased competition makes better customer understanding, and better problem-solving ability key factors of healthy business and perseverance in complex, quickly changing environments.

2. You need it to maintain your business

It is probable that data on the quantifiable aspects of human experience will permeate service and interaction processes in work organisations to a large scale.

Not having these tools at your disposal tomorrow would put your organization at a similar disadvantage as declining to use the Internet in your business today.

3. You need it to exist tomorrow

The low hierarchies, short power distances, equality, tight networks, and lack of corruption make Finnish work culture optimal for developing this type of understanding and methodology.

Finland could become a hotspot for evolution of emotion and interaction technology, collective intelligence, and empathy-enabling business.

Finland has a unique position

WHAT TO DO?

Let’s use very, very cool technology!

• Wearable and portable sensor technology for biosignal measurement (electroencephalography, EEG, electrocardiogram, ECG, electrodermal activity measurement, EDA)

• Remote measurement of biosignals • Machine vision algorithms for emotion recognition • Brain structure and function measurement with functional

magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) • VR environments for team collaboration

To create new knowledge and better tools

Insight on the interaction of your

teams

Science-based tools to make

interaction function better

e.g. in distributed teams

Insight into emotions and

interaction in the customer interface

Science-based tools to deepen

customer interaction and understanding

such as…

Not all of these at once! And in a way that does not hinder work-related activities!

1. Real-time recognition of emotions (based on remote or wearable measurement of heart rate, heart rate variability, breathing, electrical brain activity, skin conductance, and facial expressions, including micro-expressions)

2. Synchronization (based on calculations of coherence or coupling in biosignals) 3. Physical interaction (gestures, movement in space, proximity, synchronization of

movement patterns between individuals)

Things we’d like to measure at your organization

Some examples of possible research endeavours and their goals:

1. Improving the collaboration of distributed teams that rely on computer-mediated interaction by making use of biosignal measurement and synchronization, creating a better sense or shared context, and exploring VR as a way to enhance interaction in distributed teams

2. Creating new knowledge on the characteristics of interaction in the most successful teams within an organization in order to design optimal digital settings for teamwork

3. Using emotion-related data to improve understanding of customer needs and thereby the interaction in the customer interface

4. Using emotion data on customers to design services and products

The first step of partner collaboration is to together find the questions for research and goals!

How?

WHO?

Three to 10 companies interested in the topic and in finding the right questions to ask together with the scientists.

Who are ready to invest in the project (10 % of actual project funding needs to come from industry partners).

We are looking for you

(Depending on your share of the total minimum investment needed from industry partners):

• Experiments focusing on a relevant problem within your work environment.

• Priority access to seminars arranged by the project showcasing important research findings, interesting speakers in the field, and facilitating joint learning around the topic.

• Membership in the “Main Hub”, formed of representatives of the partner companies and important thinkers in the field.

• Knowledge within your organization on your own activities as well as on ground-breaking technology that has not been seen outside the lab.

You will get

Different options

100 000 EUR (75 % of total minimun funding need) 6 person membership in the Main Hub Free attendance to seminars with quota of 50 attendees A series of tailored experiments

50 000 EUR (37,5%) 4 person membership in the Main Hub Free attendance to seminars with quota of 30 attendees Two tailored experiments

20 000 EUR (15%) 3 person membership in the Main Hub Free attendance to seminars with quota of 15 attendees One tailored experiment

5000 EUR (3,75%) 1 person membership in the Main Hub Free attendance to seminars with quota of 10 attendees

The Cognitive Brain Research Unit, University of Helsinki

Project leader Katri Saarikivi, Lab engineer Tommi Makkonen, Researcher Valtteri

Wikström, Research Director Mari Tervaniemi, Docent Minna Huotilainen

University of Oulu, Center for Machine Vision and Signal Analysis

Professor Matti Pietikäinen, Professor Guoying Zhao

Aalto University, Media Lab and Department of Computer Science

Professor Teemu Leinonen, Docent Merja Bauters, Researcher Eva Durall

Research Consortium & People

Katri Saarikivi The Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki +358443045897 katri.saarikivi@helsinki.fi @katrisaarikivi medium.com/@katrisaarikivi nemoproject.co

Contact

Extra material, further reading

NEW TECHNOLOGIES

Increased complexity in business environments

Impossibility of prediction

More competition —> Diversification of customer needs

Increase in the cognitive load of work and in possibilities and requirements for collaboration pose increasing demands on the tools used for interaction, and on organisational structures guiding it.

More online interaction (e.g. distributed teams, customer service)

Opportunities to collect new types of data on individuals

Real-time measurement of movement and emotion-related biosignals, behavior and interaction

The possibility to gain new insight into factors that enable or inhibit multiple levels of understanding between individuals and define the quality of interaction.

In practice

We will build small measurement stations housing the IoT modules, and remote measurement technology on the partner organisation’s premises.

If the partner organization has volunteers, we will also conduct focused measurements of team work making use of portable biosensor technology.

Some questions that arise may need to be answered in experiments conducted in laboratory settings - the participants for these measurements will however be recruited from the partner organizations.

Scientific questions we’re interested in

1. Do movement and emotion patterns of groups of individuals in a shared space reveal the determinants of functional interaction?

2. How do emotional states influence the ability of individuals to cooperate? 3. Does synchronization of physiological signals between individuals predict the quality of interaction? 4. Could this synchronization be induced or deepened in order to improve interaction or more quickly

achieve a cooperative state? 5. Can individuals’ cooperation ability in digital environments be increased with the help of technology,

for instance by increasing the availability of emotion-related physiological data in an understandable form?

6. Is virtual reality (VR) an environment that more easily fosters synchronization of physiological signals and thereby more functional cooperation?