FROM THE LABS HP OMNICEPT
HP Omnicept ' s bioanalytics promise to transform VR flight stimulation . Illustration by Hiroshi Horii , lead designer on the Omnicept team .
2020
IN EARLY 2020 , Ballagas brought in even more scientific muscle by recruiting
Dr . Erika Siegel , a psychophysiologist who studies how physical cues like heart rate reflect our internal state . She was impressed by how committed HP is to creating products supported by cutting-edge science . “ This [ testing ] has been very rigorous from the beginning ,” she says . “ This is how I would have designed it .”
The team also started collaborating with
Jeremy Bailenson , founding director of the Virtual Human Interaction Lab at Stanford University , who helped design the studies . Bailenson says he ’ s usually leery of companies promising they can measure emotions , but this opportunity was different . “ The team that Tico put together was what changed my mind ,” he says , describing the mix of expertise as “ mind-blowingly good .”
Even as COVID-19 caused a global shutdown , the team continued to collect data by sending out sterilized headsets to more than 600 subjects in the United States , Mozambique , Brazil , and Taiwan . This data makes the Omnicept ’ s algorithm one of the most inclusive and most representative AIs ever developed .
And though the pandemic kept the core team sequestered in their homes , work on the Omnicept continued . “ There ’ s just a good energy to the team ,” says Siegel , who credits Ballagas for keeping everyone on deadline while still fostering creativity .
OPENING UP THE SCIENCE
“ This [ testing ] has been very rigorous from the beginning . This is how I would have designed it .”
— Erika Siegel , lead psychologist
202
AFTER YEARS OF development , the Omnicept will initially be used with workplace training applications , like flight simulators that train new pilots , and programs like
Ovation , which helps people practice public-speaking skills .
As they collect more user data , Ballagas and team will continue to refine and expand Omnicept ’ s inferences to include emotions beyond cognitive load . In the future it will be used to test how drivers feel about a new car interior before it ’ s built or improve the outcome of virtual meetings and collaboration by capturing the nonverbal cues of participants .
Already Ballagas is considering new ways to unlock the secrets of the brain .
“ I think that ’ s the future of computing , the future of communication , and it will be really powerful .”
THE FUTURE OF OMNICEPT
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