New Tech Transmits Emotions Through Your Palm

A new technology can stimulate different areas of
the hand to convey feelings of happiness,
sadness, excitement or fear without making
physical contact with your body.
According to Marianna Obrist from University of
Sussex's department of informatics, short, sharp
bursts of air to the area around the thumb, index
finger and middle part of the palm generate
excitement whereas sad feelings are created by
slow and moderate stimulation of the outer palm
and the area around the "pinky" finger.
Imagine a couple that has just had a fight before
going to work.
"While she is in a meeting, she receives a gentle
sensation transmitted through her bracelet on the
right part of her hand moving into the middle of
the palm. That sensation comforts her and
indicates that her partner is not angry anymore,"
Obrist explained.
These sensations were generated in the
experiment using the Ultrahaptics system.
The system enables creating sensations of touch
through air to stimulate different parts of the
hand.
During the study, one group of participants was
asked to create patterns to describe the emotions
evoked by five separate images: calm scenery
with trees, white-water rafting, a graveyard, a car
on fire and a wall clock.
The participants were able to manipulate the
position, direction, frequency, intensity and
duration of the stimulations.
A second group then selected the stimulations
created by the first group that they felt best
described the emotions evoked by the images.
They chose the best two for each image, making
a total of 10.
Finally, a third group experienced all 10 selected
stimulations while viewing each image in turn and
rated how well each stimulation described the
emotion evoked by each image.
The third group gave significantly higher ratings
to stimulations, when they were presented
together with the image they were intended for,
proving that the emotional meaning had been
successfully communicated between the first and
third groups.
"A similar technology could be used between
parent and baby, or to enrich audio-visual
communication in a long-distance relationships,"
the authors noted .
It also has huge potential for "one-to-many"
communication -- for example, dancers at a club
could raise their hands to receive haptic
stimulation that enhances feelings of excitement
and stability.
"Relatively soon, we may be able to realise truly
compelling and multi-faceted media experiences,
such as nine-dimensional TV or computer games
that evoke emotions through taste," Obrist
concluded.
The findings were presented at the "CHI 2015"
conference in South Korea on April 21.