Affective wearables

Abstract

An "affective wearable" is a wearable system equipped with sensors and tools which enables recognition of its wearer's affective patterns. Affective patterns include expressions of emotion such as a joyful smile, an angry gesture, a strained voice or a change in autonomic nervous system activity such as accelerated head rate or increasing skin conductivity. This paper describes new applications of affective wearables, and presents a prototype which gathers physiological signals and their annotations from its wearer. Results of preliminary experiments of its performance are reported for a user wearing four different sensors and engaging in several natural activities.