Quantifying human experience for increased intelligence within work teams and in the customer interface

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

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
=

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
=

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.

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

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?

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%)
attendees
Two tailored experiments
20 000 EUR (15%)
attendees
One tailored experiment
5000 EUR (3,75%)
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?

Quantifying human experience for increased intelligence within work teams and in the customer interface

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Quantifying human experience for increased intelligence within work teams and in the customer interface