Recap
For our project, we focused on emotions that occur in an interpersonal relationship. To track these emotions we use text messages, in particular the Emojis which were sent to each other. Our conclusion after the research to find the right material to display the feelings was, that the connection between some substances and emotions can be very subjective. After further discussion about this, we thought about water as our material. The reason behind the decision was the many different characteristics of water depending on the environmental influences.
First idea of our prototype
The first final idea for a prototype can be seen in this little sketch.
The rough concept is a transparent cube filled with water. The water can change its characteristics depending on the emojis in text messages. In our material research, we defined four main emotions which can be displayed by the prototype. We split the visual and haptic effects into three dimensions. You can feel the temperature and you can see the surface movement as well as the color of the water within the cube.
Before we started to build this prototype with electronics, we wanted to try to get a first visual glimpse just with some cubes in different colors built out of cardboard.
Building the Prototype and new ideas
In a discussion after our first visual inputs, the point came up that with the color and the different surface movements there is much less focus on the haptic part of the prototype. We got inspired by a scene in the first Harry Potter movie where Neville Longbottom got a gift called a Remembrall. This little transparent sphere changes its color while in Neville‘s hand after he forgot something to do. Due to this, we decided that you have to touch our cube filled with water to get a visual output. Before a haptic interaction occurs the only thing that changes is the temperature of the water. With this idea in mind, we wanted a more inviting prototype to touch. We came up with the solution to use something similar to a fortune-telling sphere. A round shape is more pleasing to get your hands on than a cube with its edges and corners.
Now that we have the right reservoir for the water we decided to first concentrate on the color-changing aspect of our prototype. We use an Adafruit Neopixel Ring which is connected to an Arduino Uno microcontroller. The ring is placed directly underneath our sphere to light up the water in our desired color scheme. After some testing, we added a little bit of milk. This had the effect to get a smooth and full-colored water sphere.
Before you touch the prototype, the default color is just plain white because it was not associated with any emotions and is known for its neutrality. We also programmed some animations for the lighting. An example would be a pumping action. This is supposed to represent the heartbeat which is often associated with love.
Besides the light animations, we wanted to add some physical movement to the water. Since we were limited by the time this was not automated in the end. To display the concept in the video presentation we had to fake some motions. With the help of a straw, we blew air into the water to represent the boiling bubbles while angry.
The idea to change the temperature was, to do it with a heating element attached to the sphere. But to get it safe for the electronic parts as well as for us, especially in the range where it starts boiling, that was not feasible with our resources.
Scenario
To show the functionality of the prototype we needed a sequence of events in a relationship between two people where all four emotions occur. The first thing in our minds was that you get pretty angry when someone cancels a meet-up in the short term. Based on that situation we built a scenario that suits us. Happiness occurs before you are able to meet a beloved person. After a beautiful date, you could get some strong feelings like love. But it can also be very saddening when it is not possible to meet up for a longer period.
Further ideas and user study
In one of our last discussions, where we talked about the default state of our sphere, we came up with an idea to display the frequency of text messages. A good indicator to show this could be the water level within our prototype. It fills up the more you write to each other. In nature, the physical movement of water is also much stronger the more water is available. This is a great metaphor for the stronger feelings you get to a person if you connect via text messages more frequently.
For the user study, we showed a video of our prototype to the participants. At first, they just saw the visuals of the sphere and had to determine the emotion which is shown. A common mistake was the mix-up between love and anger. For us, this was not a bad thing. Love and anger are both very strong feelings and they can also be connected in reality. After we showed the participants some context in form of text messages and emojis they could connect the emotions to the display of the glass sphere with ease.