Jesús Ibáñez

Showing emotions through movement and symmetry

This paper proposes and explores a minimalist abstract approach to express emotions through movement and symmetry, which intends to minimize the users expectations. Emotions are represented in terms of arousal and valence dimensions and they are visually expressed in a simple way through the behaviour and appearance of a series of dynamic horizontal and vertical lines. In particular, the arousal value is expressed through the movement of these lines, while the valence value is expressed through their symmetry. The line movement is controlled by a flocking algorithm which is influenced by the arousal value, while the line symmetry/asymmetry is expressed through their rotation and length. Furthermore, the paper describes a user experiment which investigated whether the arousal and valence expressed by our model are appropriately perceived by the users or not. The results suggest that combinations of movement and symmetry are perceived correctly as particular emotions, that movement and symmetry are perceived as arousal and valence respectively and that they are independent of each other.

Adaptive two-player videogames

This paper presents a strategy to design two-player videogames which are able to adapt themselves to the level of the layers who are playing at each moment. The goal of the strategy is to allow the players enjoying the game in spite of their different levels. A first tennis videogame (based on the classic Pong) which implements this strategy has already been developed and evaluated through user studies. In the paper we first motivate this work and survey related work. Then we describe the general strategy and its application to the case of the tennis videogame. We also present the user studies carried out and analyze the interesting results.

Lessons from research on interaction with virtual environments

Nowadays, virtual environments provide great potential for new applications. However, the management and interaction with virtual environments raises new open problems. In this sense, this paper discusses important ideas and findings from research on interaction with virtual environments and virtual agents which we think are relevant for the design of successful virtual environments. More concretely, the paper discusses three aspects which are the representation of virtual environments, navigation support and addition of life to the environments. For each theme we introduce and discuss relevant work. In the view of the work discussed, we also provide recommendations to guide the design and development of virtual environments.

Flocking techniques to naturally support navigation in large and open virtual worlds

This paper proposes and explores the use of flocking techniques to naturally support navigation in large and open virtual environments. The proposed approach comprises both a flocking algorithm (which simulates the behavior of a flock of virtual beings) and a control algorithm (which manages the navigation information and parameterizes the flocking behavior). The model was developed and evaluated through a user study which investigated whether the addition of the proposed model has an effect on the user experience when exploring a virtual environment. In the research the experiment group explored a virtual environment where the proposed flocking model was added to suggest places to visit. The participants were not informed about the guiding abilities of the virtual animals. The control group explored the same virtual environment without the animal flock. The impact of both cases was compared. The results indicate that the proposed model is adequate to suggest places to visit in large and open virtual worlds.

Emotinet: A Framework for the Development of Social Awareness Systems

This chapter describes Emotinet, a flexible and extensible framework for the development of social awareness systems. Emotinet was initially designed and developed to facilitate our explorations on how to augment a person’s work environment with information which enables his/her to feel the presence of intimate companions. The vehicle we deem to be appropriate for this situation is indirect communication. The presence we intend is based on the activities of these intimate people. A first social awareness system has already been developed by using Emotinet. This system is also described in this chapter. In short, with a certain periodicity the user is presented, on a peripheral user interface (windows desktop or digital picture frame), with a new collage composed of pictures indirectly triggered by their loved ones. In particular the pictures are triggered by the text they write and read, while working on their PCs.

Emotional Sea: Showing Valence and Arousal Through the Sharpness and Movement of Digital Cartoonish Sea Waves

This paper proposes and explores a nonanthropomorphic approach to express emotions. Emotions are represented in terms of valence and arousal dimensions, and they are visually expressed through the shape and movement of a series of digital cartoonish sea waves which are modeled as simple Bèzier curves. In particular, the valence value is expressed through the sharpness of the curves (the more negative the valence, the sharper the curves), while the arousal value is expressed through their movement (controlled by a flocking algorithm). Furthermore, this paper describes a user study which investigated whether the valence and arousal expressed by our model are appropriately perceived by the users or not. The results suggest that combinations of sharpness and movement are perceived correctly as particular emotions and that sharpness and movement are perceived as valence and arousal, respectively. We also found that valence in our model has a slight side effect in the perception of arousal. The more negative the valence, the higher the arousal is perceived.

Emotional clouds: Showing arousal and valence through the movement and darkness of digital cartoonish clouds

While nowadays the most usual way to show emotions in digital contexts is via virtual characters, its use may raise false expectations (the user attributes human abilities to the virtual character). This paper proposes and explores an approach to express emotions which intends to minimize the users expectations by using a non-anthropomorphic model. Emotions are represented in terms of arousal and valence dimensions. They are visualized in a simple way through the behaviour and appearance of a series of cartoonish clouds. In particular, the arousal value is expressed through the movement of these clouds (controlled by a flocking algorithm), while the valence value is expressed through their degree of darkness. Furthermore, the paper describes a user experiment which investigated whether the arousal and valence expressed by our model are appropriately interpreted by the users or not. The results suggest that movement and darkness are interpreted as arousal and valence respectively and that they are independent of each other.

Musimage: A System for Automatically Presenting Pictures Depending on the Music Being Played

This paper presents Musimage, a novel system which displays pictures according to the songs being played at the same time. By using the interface the user selects the songs to be played, but the pictures are automatically selected. For each song to be played, the system selects a set of pictures, according to various criteria corresponding to some features of the song. In this sense, the pictures to be shown are, metaphorically, triggered by the songs.

DINDOW: Towards an Interaction Based on Spatio-temporal Memory

This paper describes the design and development of a novel system which allows non experienced users to easily interact with digital information and other users. In particular, the system allows the user to receive, handle and send media elements (pictures, text messages, videos). Instead of employing the file system to interact with information, the user interface promotes a kind of interaction which relies on spatial and temporal memory, which we believe to be more adequate.