Affective Prosthesis

As the demand for technologies that mediate the environment continues to rise, day-to-day activities have been increasingly overloaded with devices that collect personal signals, such as phones, watches, jewelry, and fitness trackers. Yet, despite the sensibility of these machines, little has been explored in decoding the highly informative signals collected by these devices to temper the physical environment. These signals have the potential to communicate one’s cognitive state and, in turn, address signs of stress and anxiety. Embracing the open access to these technologies, this research seeks to question how covert physiological signals can be turned into perceived sensorial experiences to increase awareness of one’s cognitive state and elicit positive affect through material interfaces. Acting not as a substitute for traditional therapies but as an alternative antidote, these sensorial interventions seek to process, analyze, and interpret physiological patterns, such as electrodermal activity and heart rate variability, to recognize signs of high and low emotional arousal and pair them with tactile, olfactory, auditory, and visual alterations in one’s surrounding. It is predicted that through the repeated association of the actuated stimuli with specific physiological states, a certain conditioning can be evoked to subsequently promote an instinctual response to malleable matter. The results illustrate that the fabric of the environment can not only be empathetic to subconscious mood but also able to foster positive affect through psychophysiological adaptation.