Are you socially awkward, or do you suffer from social anxiety? A new computer program could help you practice the nuanced art of meeting and communicating with others.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) have created "MACH," or "My Automated Conversation coacH," a software program that uses a computer-generated 3D character that sees, listens and responds to you, effectively simulating conversations with its users, the Daily Mail reports.
MACH keeps track of its users' use of "weak" utterances (such as "um," "uh" and "mm,") and examines the user's "average smile intensity" by scanning their facial expressions and body language through a webcam. The 3D character will nod its head and smile at the right moment to make it feel like it's listening to its users, and at the end of the simulation, will provide feedback on the user's non-verbal skills and voice modulations.
M.I.T.'s Media Lab research team has already used the program to help coach people for job interviews and public speaking engagements, providing feedback on how well participants are communicating.
"MACH must appear and behave human-like, adapting its behaviors to changes in the interaction," the software developers wrote in their paper, which will be presented at a conference called UbiComp in Zurich this September, according to the New Yorker.
The software was built over the course of two years, early stages of the program tested on 90 M.I.T. undergraduates seeking to improve their presentation skills.
"In a technical university where people are really, really technical, it's possible that many people would have social difficulty," said chief researcher, Eshan Hoque.
The idea for MACH came to Hoque during a workshop held by the Asperger's Association, where he was approached by people who wanted a technological solution to their struggles communicating with others.
"It smiles when you smile," Hoque said of MACH. "It gives you the feeling, 'Hey, this software is listening to me.'"
Hoque hopes that the program will help people with a variety of social phobias or anxieties around speaking to new people, from job interviews to dating, and will expand as a usable technology for the general public.
