Jocelyn Scheirer

Jocelyn Scheirer is an American entrepreneur, scientist, and artist who has been working in wearable technology since the late 1990s. Her research focuses on Affective Computing, which she pursued while pursuing her PhD (pending) at MIT Media's Lab Affective Computing Group with Rosalind Picard. Scheirer invented and, along with MIT, patented the Galvactivator glove which measured skin conductance through sensors on the palm and relayed the varying intensity through an LED display.[1] She founded the intercommunication equipment and systems company Empathyx, Inc. in 2006 and co-founded the emotional analytics company Affectiva in 2009, serving as their director of operations until 2010.[2][3] Scheirer has also created several visual and performance art pieces that have been featured in several galleries in Massachusetts including the MIT Museum, the Galatea Fine Art Gallery, and the Bromfield Gallery.[4][5][6] She currently serves as CEO of the wearable company Bionolux Labs, LLC.[7]

Jocelyn Scheirer
Scheirer in 2022
Born (1967-12-06) December 6, 1967
Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
CitizenshipAmerican
Alma materTufts University (Dual B.A., 1989)
Brandeis University (M.A., 1996)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Ph.D Candidate 1996-2001)
MIT Media Lab
Scientific career
FieldsAffective Computing
Wearables
InstitutionsMIT Media Lab, Ronin Institute
Websitewww.bionolux.com

Education and published works

Scheirer graduated from Concord Academy in Concord, Massachusetts in 1985. She obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and English Literature from Tufts University in 1989. She then went on to earn her master's degree from Brandeis University, focusing on Developmental and Social Psychology, graduating in 1996. Scheirer later pursued a PhD in media arts and sciences while working as a research assistant in the MIT Media Lab's Affective Computing Group from 1996 to 2001.[2]

Career

Shortly after graduating from Tufts University, Scheirer worked as a research technician under Arthur S. Tischler in the endocrine pathology lab at Tufts University School of Medicine from 1991 to 1994.[8] She co-authored several works with Tischler concerning chromaffin cell proliferation in rats and humans. Two years later, Scheirer joined the MIT Media Lab as a research assistant in the Affective Computing Research Group and began developing affective objects, or physical objects that can record emotional data from a given subject and relay that information to that subject or to observers in a given environment.[9][10] She published several studies on the topic with Rosalind Picard, the founder of the Affective Computing Research Group.[11]

While at MIT Scheirer developed several affective objects with Picard including AboutFace, eyeglasses that can track changes facial movement characteristic of confusion and interest, Touch Phone, a telephone handset supplemented with pressure sensitive foam that changed the color of an icon on the recipient's screen, and the Galvactivator, a glove that measures skin conductance and relays the information via a glowing LED.[12][13][14] Scheirer would continue to prototype the Galvactivator device in her future companies Empathyx, Inc. and Bionolux, LLC. Affectiva also licensed the patent in 2009.[15]

Scheirer briefly worked as a consultant for Sherry Turkle in the Science, technology, and society department at MIT. conducting ethnographic research for Turkle's book Alone Together from 2000 to 2001.[16]

In 2006, Scheirer founded her first MIT Media Lab spinout Empathyx, Inc. where she attempted to commercialize the Galvactivator.[17] In 2009, Affectiva licensed the Galvactivator from MIT. Rana el Kaliouby and Rosalind Picard would continue to utilize the patent over the next 3 years, developing their own skin conductance sensor called the Q Sensor which also used some of the technology from the MIT Media Lab's iCalm, another wearable physiological monitoring device.[18][19][20] Affectiva used the Q Sensor in addition to their facial recognition software to measure physiological stress and excitement in focus groups. Affectiva discontinued their use of the "Q Sensor" in 2013 to focus their attention exclusively on their patented Affdex facial recognition software.[21]

Following her time at Affectiva, Scheirer briefly worked as a research analyst performing statistical analysis at the Harvard Graduate School of Education from 2011 to 2012 before starting her own technology company, Bionolux Labs, LLC.

Current work

Scheirer founded the wearables research and development company Bionolux Labs, LLC in May 2014 and currently serves as CEO. Bionolux Labs’ first project is a patent-pending skin conductance ring.[7][22] The company currently collaborates with institutions including NASA, NYU, and Brandeis University where she is lecturer in psychology.[34]

She was elected to sit on the board of the MIT Enterprise Forum of New York City in September 2015.[23] She is also a Research Scholar at the Ronin Institute.[24]

Relevant published work

Below is a list of Scheirer's most notable published works in order of publishing date:

Title of the ArticleAuthorsPublicationYearField
Nerve growth factor is a potent inducer of proliferation and neuronal differentiation for adult rat chromaffin cells in vitro[25][26] Tischler, AS, Riseberg, JC, Hardenbrook, MA, & Cherington, VThe Journal of Neuroscience, Volume 13, Issue #41993Neuroscience, Endocrinology
Action and reaction: Computer-mediated dialogues as a model for natural interfaces[27][28]Riseberg, J., Berkowitz, R., Cunningham, J.Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Cognitive Technology1997Affective Computing, Cognitive Psychology
Affective Objects[29][30]Scheirer, J., Picard, R.MIT Media Laboratory Perceptual Computing Section Technical Report No. 5242000Affective Computing Wearable technology
Frustrating the user on purpose: a step toward building an affective computer[31][32]Scheirer, J., Fernandez, R, Klein, J, & Picard, R.Interacting with Computers, Volume 14, Issue #22002Affective Computing
The Galvactivator: a glove that senses and communicates skin conductivity[33][34]Picard, R. & Scheirer, JThe 9th International Conference on Human Computer Interaction2001Wearable technology, Affective Computing

Patents

"Sensing and Display of Skin Conductivity.” U.S. Patent 6415176. Issued July 2, 2002. (Jocelyn Scheirer, Rosalind Picard, Nancy Tilbury, and Jonathan Farringdon)[15]

References
  1. Higginbotham, Adam. "Welcome to Rosalind Picard's touchy-feely world of empathic tech". Wired UK. Condé Nast Digital. Retrieved May 19, 2015.
  2. Kirsner, Scott (August 31, 2009). "MIT's Legendary Media Lab Spawns Two New Companies". Boston.com. 2015 Boston Globe Media Partners, LLC. Retrieved April 14, 2015.
  3. "Empathyx, Inc". MassachusettsCorps. October 23, 2006. Retrieved April 14, 2015.
  4. "Media Lab Conductor Jacket". MIT Museum 150 Exhibition. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved May 13, 2015.
  5. "Artists selected for 'NE Collective IV' Juried Show". Galatea Fine Art. Open Publishing. Retrieved April 14, 2015.
  6. "Events by Organization and Artist (1999 Archives)". Boston Cyber Arts Festival. Open Publishing. Retrieved April 11, 2015.
  7. Scheirer, Jocelyn (December 12, 2014). "Editors Day Boston 2014 Interview with Bionolux". TMCNet (Interview). Interviewed by Rich Tehrani. Boston, MA: Technology Marketing Corp. Retrieved May 13, 2015.
  8. "Internet of Things and Social Wearables By @JCSMedia @ThingsExpo [#IoT]: Speaker Bio". Internet of Things Expo 2015. SYS-CON Media Inc. Retrieved April 11, 2015.
  9. Scheirer, Jocelyn; Picard, Rosalind (2000). Affective Objects (PDF) (Technical report). MIT Media Laboratory Perceptual Computing Section. 524.
  10. "MIT Media Lab Alumni". MIT Media Lab Affective Computing Group. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved May 13, 2015.
  11. Higginbotham, Adam. "Welcome to Rosalind Picard's touchy-feely world of empathic tech". Wired UK. Condé Nast Digital. Retrieved May 15, 2015.
  12. "AboutFace". MIT Media Lab Affective Computing Group. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved April 14, 2015.
  13. "Touch-Phone". MIT Media Lab Affective Computing Group. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved April 14, 2015.
  14. "Galvactivator". MIT Media Lab Affective Computing Group. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved April 14, 2015.
  15. US patent 6415176, "Sensing and Display of Skin Conductivity", Scheirer, J, Picard, R.W., Tilbury, N., & Farringdon, J. U.S. Patent 6415176. Issued July 2, 2002.
  16. Turkle, Sherry (2011). Alone Together (PDF) (1st ed.). Basic Books. p. 10. Retrieved April 14, 2015.
  17. "Spin-offs". MIT Media Lab. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. April 30, 2005. Retrieved April 14, 2015.
  18. "The CIMIT Exploratorium 2009" (PDF). cimit.org/. Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 4, 2016. Retrieved April 19, 2015.
  19. "Q Sensor User Manual". Affectiva.com. Affectiva. May 15, 2014. Retrieved April 14, 2015.
  20. Campbell-Dollaghan, Kelsey (November 19, 2014). "How a Medical Stress Sensor Evolved Into a Beautiful Wearable For All". Gizmodo. Gawker Media Network. Retrieved May 15, 2015.
  21. Comstock, Jonah (May 17, 2013). "Mobile epilepsy sensors: student-led, stopped, or stalled". MobiHealthNews. Chester Street Publishing, Inc. Retrieved April 14, 2015./
  22. "Social Wearables". Internet of Things Expo. Cloud Expo, Inc. Retrieved April 14, 2015.
  23. "About Us". MITEFNYC.org. MIT Enterprise Forum of NYC. Retrieved September 15, 2015.
  24. "Research Scholar profile". Ronin Institute. Retrieved March 21, 2021.
  25. Tischler, Arthur S.; Scheirer, Jocelyn; Hardenbrook, Mitchell Alan; Cherington, V. (1993). "Nerve growth factor is a potent inducer of proliferation and neuronal differentiation for adult rat chromaffin cells in vitro". Journal of Neuroscience. The Journal of Neuroscience. 13 (4): 1533–1542. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.13-04-01533.1993. PMC 6576738. PMID 8463833.
  26. Ferrari, Giovanna; Greene, Lloyd A. (1994). "Proliferative inhibition by dominant-negative Ras rescues naive and neuronally differentiated PC12 cells from apoptotic death". EMBO J. The EMBO Journal. 13 (24): 5922–5928. doi:10.1002/j.1460-2075.1994.tb06937.x. PMC 395567. PMID 7813431.
  27. Riseberg, Jocelyn; Berkowitz, R.; Cunningham, J. (August 25, 1997). Computer-mediated dialogues as a model for natural interfaces. p. 109. ISBN 9780818680847. Retrieved May 12, 2015. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  28. Pareto, Lena; Johansson, Britt; Ljungberg, Christer; Zeller, Sally; Sunnerhagen, Katharina S.; Rydmark, Martin; Broeren, Jurgen (1994). "Telehealth with 3D games for stroke rehabilitation". Researchgate.net. International Journal on Disability and Human Development. pp. 373–377. Retrieved May 27, 2015.
  29. Scheirer, Jocelyn; Picard, Rosalind. "Affective Objects" (PDF). MIT Media Lab. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved May 12, 2015.
  30. Kim, Jinwoo; Lee, Jooeun; Choi, Dongseong (2003). "Designing emotionally evocative homepages: an empirical study of the quantitative relations between design factors and emotional dimensions" (PDF). Elsevier. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies. pp. 899–940. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 28, 2015. Retrieved May 27, 2015.
  31. Scheirer, Jocelyn; Fernandez, Raul; Klein, Jonathan; Picard, Rosalind. "Frustrating the user on purpose: a step toward building an affective computer" (PDF). MIT Media Lab. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved May 12, 2015.
  32. Nazos, Fatma; Alvarez, Kaye; Lisetti, Christine L.; Finkelstein, Neal (2004). "Emotion Recognition from Physiological Signals for Presence Technologies". Cognition, Technology & Work. Pennsylvania State University. 6 (1): 4–14. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.94.7753. doi:10.1007/s10111-003-0143-x. S2CID 20851503.
  33. Picard, Rosalind; Scheirer, Jocelyn. "The Galvactivator: a glove that senses and communicates skin conductivity" (PDF). MIT Media Lab. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved May 12, 2015.
  34. Setz, Cornelia; Arnrich, Bert; Schumm, Johannes; La Marca, Roberto; Trӧster, Gerhard; Ehlert, Ulrike (2010). "Discriminating Stress From Cognitive Load Using a Wearable EDA Device" (PDF). Bert Arnrich Personal Website. IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine. pp. 410–417. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 28, 2015. Retrieved May 27, 2015.
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