Computers Seeing People

AI researchers are interested in building intelligent machines that can interact with them as they interact with each other. Science fiction writers have given us these goals in the form of HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey and Commander Data in Star Trek: The Next Generation. However, at present, our computers are deaf, dumb, and blind, almost unaware of the environment they are in and of the user who interacts with them. In this article, I present the current state of the art in machines that can see people, recognize them, determine their gaze, understand their facial expressions and hand gestures, and interpret their activities. I believe that by building machines with such abilities for perceiving, people will take us one step closer to building HAL and Commander Data.