A near-human virtual teacher called Eve can tell if a child is frustrated, angry or confused by an on-screen teaching session and can adapt the tutoring session appropriately.

With a human-sounding voice, Eve can ask questions, give feedback, discuss questions and solutions and show emotion. To develop the software, the Massey University researchers observed children and their interactions with teachers and captured them on thousands of images.

From these images of facial expression, gestures and body movements, they developed programs that would capture and recognize facial expression, body movement, and heart rate and skin resistance.