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an intimate remote awareness
system based on sleep patterns
Aura is a prototype background communication device that aims to create
a sense of emotional presence between two people who are separated by
space or time. An augmented sleeping mask records sleeping rhythms and
infers an emotional state of the wearer. This information is transmitted
to a remote location and mapped to musical selections in a personal keepsake
"music box" that represents the remote partner.
One of the most delicate forms of connection between close partners is
rooted in a sense of awareness of each other's emotional state. For example,
one partner can often tell if the other is feeling down by interpreting,
sometimes unconsciously, a variety of subtle signals to which they have
been attuned over a period of time, like body movement, facial expression,
voice quality, and so on. Physical or temporal separation, consequently,
can impede partners from maintaining this kind of intuitive awareness.
Aura investigates the possibility of reinstating this subtle awareness
regardless of separation. Rather than just a cognitive awareness of someone
else's state, Aura aims to convey emotional information in a visceral
way, similar to what is sensed when one has a "gut feeling"
about something.
Aura consists of a sleeping mask with an embedded electro-oculargram that
can detect eye movements typical of REM sleep. Data from the mask is used
to grossly estimate whether or not the wearer has had a good night's sleep,
which is in turn used to infer if he/she is in a good or bad mood the
following day. This information is transmitted to the remote location
and mapped to music compositions or selections that play inside a precious
box recalling a jewelry or music box. By opening the box the remote partner
can listen to music that was composed from their loved one's previous
night of sleep.
Music was chosen as a medium because we felt it was something that could
evoke the visceral quality of the emotions inferred from the captured
data. Conceptually, Aura aims to enable the user to not only listen to
but also feel their distant loved one's emotional state. The project has
highlighted a number of difficulties in designing remote awareness systems,
especially those that use physiological measurements as a basis for capturing
emotion. Ultimately we feel that a greater understanding of the mechanisms
of human emotion is required to produce communication devices capable
of abstracting and reconstructing emotional information effectively.
A couple separated by distance exist in a different relationship than
that of one in a single location. Based on trust, theirs is a situation
where the distance creates only high quality communication, where everything
is considered, and described, and abstracted. The Aura project aims to
suggest an addition to that specific nature of this type of relationship
by providing a layer of ambiguity that does not exist when communicating
through such means as email and the telephone. By listening to the others
sounds one wonders what the sounds mean? “She has a big meeting today,
the sounds are strange, she must have been nervous, should I send her
a message of support…? The space between two people in a relationship
is enlarged by the lack of physical contact; the visceral nature of the
outcome is intended to encourage an illusion of the unconscious connection
that occurs in a place. In general Aura describes how a person is doing
not what they are doing, this is a phenomenon that is more difficult to
achieve when people are separated. The space between is perceived as negative
and restrictive because it creates this frustration. Aura is a system
that people might use in response to the desire to control that space
and remove it.
CHI 2005
Aura was presented at CHI 2005
at the Awareness Systems workshop.
Download position staitment: Aura.pdf
(158k)
publications:
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