Jonathan Wong | New ZealandJonathan Wong | New Zealand

Empathy Machines

, , ,

The future of technology involves emphatic computing– the use of technology to share our emotions and experiences. Is this a paradigm shift, or is society getting soft? Who knows, but this trend in human computer interaction is part of a research we did for the Think Tank Team.

Our aim was to explore the potential of sharing emotions through the use of technology. This project provided an invaluable learning experience, as I learnt a lot of UX methodology from the wonderful Aga Szotek– who taught me that creativity DOES have science behind it.

 

Here’s a quick video we made to present our final prototype.

 

 

The final mobile app was made with the Vuforia SDK and Unity3D. Below are more pictures with details in the captions of some of the tools and UX methodologies used in this project.

Brainstorming factors involved in sharing emotions, with user responses then grouped.
UX behavioural segmentations.
I created UX personas in the form of a facebook profile and used a scale to gauge their preferences to our proposed solution.
UX scenarios for our user personas.
The early mOCULUS RIFT prototype – I attached a tablet to the end of a modified cardboard box. While it was able to create an immersive experience, users preferred a more practical solution.
A wearable bracelet prototype- by connecting an Arduino board to a heart-rate sensor, I made a GUI sketch on Processing to display the user’s emotions, as indicated by heart rate.
When the app detects an object trigger (LEFT), a video overlay appears so you can play a video associated with the object (RIGHT), thus reliving the memory.