Picard has authored or co-authored over 350 scientific articles and chapters spanning computer vision, pattern recognition, machine learning, human-computer interaction, wearable sensors and affective computing. She is a recipient of several best paper prizes, including work on machine learning with multiple models (with Minka, 1998), a best theory paper prize for affect in human learning (with Kort and Reilly, 2001), a "best paper of the decade 2000-2009" by IEEE Intelligent Transporation Systems (with Healey, 2005) measuring driver stress, a best Face and Gesture paper prize for work with facial expressions (with McDuff, Kaliouby and Demirdjian, 2013), a best UBICOMP paper for an AI coach (with Hoque, Courgeon, Martin, and Mutlu, 2013), best paper at NIPS Workshop on Machine Learning for Health (with Jaques, Taylor, Nosakhare, and Sano, 2016) and best paper at IEEE RO-MAN for work on a Robotic Positive Psychology Coach (with Jeong, Alghowinem, Arias, Aymerich-Franch, Lapedriza, Park, and Breazeal, 2020).
Picard is an active inventor with multiple patents, including wearable and non-contact sensors, algorithms, and systems for sensing, recognizing, and responding respectfully to human affective information. Her inventions have applications in autism, epilepsy, depression, PTSD, sleep, stress, dementia, autonomic nervous system disorders, human and machine learning, health behavior change, market research, customer service, and human-computer interaction. In 2005 she was named a Fellow of the IEEE for contributions to image and video analysis and affective computing. CNN named her one of seven "Tech SuperHeros to Watch in 2015." Picard is also an elected member of the National Academy of Engineering for contributions in affective and wearable computing and of the National Academy of Inventors. She is a Fellow of the AAAC and the ACM. Picard has been honored with dozens of distinguished and named lectureships and other international awards. She is a popular speaker and has given over 150 keynote and invited plenary talks.