How Does It Feel Like? An Exploratory Study of a Prototype System to Convey Emotion through Haptic Wearable Devices

Abstract

This paper reports on the design and implementation of a portable, hands-free, wearable haptic device that maps the emotions evoked by the music in a movie into vibrations, with the aim that hearing-impaired audience can get a sense of the emotional content carried by the music in specific movie scenes, and therefore feel (hear) the music through the sense of touch. A study of the use of the technology is reported which found that high arousal and high valence were reliably conveyed through haptic patterns with high intensity and high frequency, whereas haptic patterns with low intensity and low frequency conveyed low arousal and low valence.

Keywords

• wearable technology
• haptics
• film art
• film music
• music and emotions