Smart scarf carries multimodal language to convey emotions
A rise in wearables reflects an interest by designers and engineers to tread in self-help, fitness territory—smart watches to measure heart rates, medallions strapped to chests, biometric shirts. Now research from a University of Maryland researcher and Microsoft Research team has come up with a wearable concept that could aid in interpreting emotions. They are exploring the potential of wearable "affective technology" that may help people reflect on their own emotional state, modify their affect, and interpret the emotional states of others. The form factor is a scarf, and it is designed to respond to signals gathered from sensors via Bluetooth. People with impairments, for instance, may not receive important visual or verbal cues of others' emotions. The researchers identified six actuations to provide a multimodal language for conveying emotion – heat, cooling, music, weights, vibration, and lighting. The device can react to various emotions. They focused on basic...