Facilitating a surprised feeling by artificial control of piloerection on the forearm

Abstract

There have been many proposals that have added haptic stimulation to entertainment content such as music, games, and movies. These technologies enrich the quality of the experiences by improving the reality thereof. In contrast, we present a novel approach to enrich the quality of these experiences by facilitating the emotional feeling evoked by the content. In this paper, we focus on piloerection, which is a kind of involuntary emotional reaction. Our hypothesis is that not only is it an emotional "reaction", but it can also work as an emotional "input" that enhances the emotion itself. We have constructed a device that controls piloerection on the forearm through electrostatic force. Based on a psychophysical experiment, we confirm that the piloerection system enhances the feeling of surprise.