Exploring universal expression of emotion with vibrotactile patterns composed using dynamic features

摘要

Touch is an important modality for conveying emotion. Affective haptics is a relatively new field with the aim of creating systems that can capture and create touch sensations that carry emotional meaning. Universal patterns in the expression of emotion have been found in movement and music using dynamic features. Previous work in affective haptics has used a variety of strategies to design the haptic sensations, but abstract mappings have not been common. With this prototype we explore how dynamic features can also be used to control vibrotactile sensations on a grid, and whether the resulting haptic patterns carry universal emotional meaning. The prototype consists of vibrotactile grid modules with multiple motors and a slider interface to control abstract features that have been previously used successfully for the dynamic control of movement and music. In the long run, vibrotactile patterns could be used to convey affect information during computer-mediated interaction in order to improve the quality of understanding.