Affective Matter: A Haptic Material Modality for Emotion Regulation and Communication

Abstract

Our emotions do not always surface into our awareness, making it difficult to put them into words. When emotions do not reach our cognitive awareness they can still express themselves as physiological changes in our body, often unperceived by ourselves and by others. To facilitate emotion regulation and expand the bandwidth of emotion communication, I developed Affective Matter. Affective Matter is a haptic material modality that allows information about the physiological aspects of emotions to be communicated through materials. Through the development of Affective Matter, I aim to enhance intrapersonal and interpersonal affective communication through haptic means and contribute to sensory-based therapies for emotional disorders.

In this dissertation, I first review literature pertaining to emotions and body-mind connections, to support the principles of Affective Matter, including the therapeutic impact of touch and controlled breathing, and the affective impact of interpersonal synchrony. I then discuss the development of two types of programmable affective sleeves as examples of Affective Matter, and describe two controlled studies with human subjects testing the psychophysiological impact of each of the sleeves. The combined results of the studies demonstrate a positive correlation between the sleeves’ pace of haptic action and the participants’ breathing rates and arousal levels. Finally, I discuss the development of a user interface for material-mediated emotion communication that translates affective information into personalized material haptic action.

Harnessing the sensory properties of matter, this work builds on advances in design, computing, psychology, and materials to propose Affective Matter as a means for human-material therapeutic interaction, where bodies and their material environments can work in synergy to enhance our emotional wellbeing.