Kelly Dobson

iCalm: Wearable Sensor and Network Architecture for Wirelessly Communicating and Logging Autonomic Activity

Widespread use of affective sensing in healthcare applications has been limited due to several practical factors, such as lack of comfortable wearable sensors, lack of wireless standards, and lack of low-power affordable hardware. In this paper, we present a new low-cost, low-power wireless sensor platform implemented using the IEEE 802.15.4 wireless standard, and describe the design of compact wearable sensors for long-term measurement of electrodermal activity, temperature, motor activity, and photoplethysmography. We also illustrate the use of this new technology for continuous long-term monitoring of autonomic nervous system and motion data from active infants, children, and adults. We describe several new applications enabled by this system, discuss two specific wearable designs for the wrist and foot, and present sample data.

An immersive, multi-user, musical stage environment

A multi-user, polyphonic sensor stage environment that maps position and gestures of up to four performers to the pitch and articulation of distinct notes is presented. The design seeks to provide multiple players on a stage with the feeling of a traditional acoustic instrument by giving them complete control over the instruments expressive parameters and a clear causal connection between their actions and the resulting sound. The positions of the performers are determined by a custom ultrasonic tracking system, while hand motions are measured by custom-made gloves containing accelerometer units. Furthermore, juggling clubs are illuminated dynamically to make complex juggling patterns more apparent. The system is currently on tour with the Flying Karamazov Brothers juggling troupe.

Creating visceral personal and social interactions in mediated spaces

We introduce vibration and temperature as visceral modes to aid intuitive social perception in networked interaction. We describe two implementations of these ideas for mediated systems -- VibroBod for interpersonal communication and Whats Shaking for newsgroup navigation.

Chit chat club: bridging virtual and physical space for social interaction

In this work, we create an audio-video link via an interactive sculpture to facilitate casual, sociable communication between two remote spaces. This communication installation was designed to blend the benefits of online interaction such as low risk interaction, lower barriers to entry, and minimized geographical constraints with the ease and the affordances of interacting and signalling in physical space. We describe the creation and the iterative design process for creating a social virtual-physical hybrid space-interface we call the Chit Chat Club. In describing our design decisions, we note the advantages and disadvantages of two Chit Chat Club installations and their effect on interaction.

Learning auditory models of machine voices

Vocal imitation is often found useful in machine therapy sessions as it creates an emphatic relational bridge between human and machine. The feedback of the machine directly responding to the persons imitation can strengthen the trust of this connection. However, vocal imitation of machines often bear little resemblance to the target due to physiological limitations. In practice, we need a way to detect human vocalization of machine sounds that can generalize to new machines. In this study we learn the relationship between vocal imitation of machine sounds and the target sounds to create a predictive model of vocalization of otherwise humanly impossible sounds. After training on a small set of machines and their imitations, we predict the correct target of a new set of imitations with high accuracy. The model outperforms distance metrics between human and machine sounds on the same task and takes into account auditory perception and constraints in vocal expression.

Collaborative tele-directing

The Tele-Direction interface allows a physically remote and geographically distributed audience to collaboratively control a shared remote resource. It features contextualized user-driven goal setting and voting, an economy, and chat. In this paper we discuss the design considerations that led to this interface and describe our initial implementation.

Toward machine therapy: parapraxis of machine design and use

Machine Therapy is a new methodology combining art, design, psychodynamics, and engineering work in ways that access and reveal the vital relevance of subconscious elements of human-machine interactions. In this paper I present examples of empathic relationships with domestic appliances, roles of wearable and prosthetic apparatuses, and instances of evocative visceral robots that interact with peoples understandings of themselves and each other. The Machine Therapy projects facilitate unusual explorations of the parapraxis of machine design and use. These usually unconscious elements of our interactions with machines critically affect our sense of self and our shared development.

Wearable body organs: critical cognition becomes (again) somatic

Three factors involved in cognition - the individual, the collective, and the objective reality - are related and investigated through the safe facilitation offered by Wearable Body Organs. Each device is adaptable to its current user and the community it is active in, made by the person and community, becoming another plane of experience. We return to a body based knowledge and communication, and simultaneously breech our once assumed body boundaries.