How to create emotional immersion

Not every touch feels the same, nor does it have the same meaning. Sometimes it is easy to perceive the intention of a touch, but other times, intentions might be confusing. A touch can create feelings of comfort or familiarity, but at the same time can be very intimidating depending on someone’s mood. Why is there such a strong relationship between emotion and touch? Paul Lemmens is looking into this relationship and into new ways to positively stimulate a certain desired mood through touch.


A strong connection between emotion and touch
With its 4 kilos in weight and almost 2 square meters in size, the human skin is our biggest, our heaviest and most sensitive sense. This sensitivity is developed as early on as in the mother’s womb. Because of its early development and direct connection with the comfort and safety of the womb, an intimate relation between touch and emotion is established.
Paul Lemmens, a cognitive scientist in the User Experiences group within the Lifestyle sector is researching why there is such a strong connection between emotion and touch and how this can be used as stimulus for people to master their desired mood, from adventuring exciting thrills to achieving pure relaxation. Scientifically, this still is relatively unexplored territory and for Philips it provides a new and additional dimension in creating experiences for our customers.


Emotions vest
“One of the projects we are working on is the emotions vest, which was shown at the IEEE-sponsored WorldHaptics 2009 Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. The vest does not focus on feeling the punches that the movie character gets, but we want people to feel Bruce Lee’s anxiety about whether he will get out alive, for example” says Paul Lemmens. The jacket, responding to signals encoded in a DVD or to a program designed to control it on the fly, can do a number of things such as “causing a shiver to go up the viewer’s spine or butterflies in the stomach.” During the fight, the jacket will even create a pulsing in the chest to simulate the kung-fu master’s elevated heartbeat. The aim, he says, is investigating how to create emotional immersion.


Future steps
“We are now looking into which kind of touch is associated with what emotions and if every touch conveys the same emotion for the same person”, says Lemmens. “Consequently”, he continues, “We might be able to determine whether the future emotions jacket or other device should be generic or trainable by its user”. If we come to understanding of how touch relates to emotion and whether or not this relationship is different for each individual, we can help people in achieving a certain emotional state or mood. For example, creating an environment in which a baby feels happy and safe. This would be an important step to further Philips’ efforts in Health and Wellbeing.

High-resolution pictures:
+ Emotions Vest