Audio Environment for the Emotional Imaging Composer

Participants: Ian Hattwick
R. Michael Winters
Marcelo M. Wanderley (supervisor)
Funding: NSERC Engage Grant (M. Wanderley)
License:

Time Period: April 2012–September 2012 (completed)

Project Description

The EIC is a multimedia tool that translates bio-signals into emotionally responsive environments in real-time. The foundation of the EIC is a custom-built wireless finger sensor that captures seven time-varying physiological measures of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). Through a procedure involving signal processing, feature extraction, transformation, and machine recognition, these signals are mapped onto human affective states. The signals extracted from the ANS are particularly useful in that they are difficult to consciously control or fake.

The EIC has tremendous potential for the field of affective computing as it provides the computer with a method for extracting emotional states from the user. It has previously been released as a hardware interface for data visualization that generates a fluid collage of visual images that directly correspond to the users internal emotional experience.

Using this tool, we created an audio environment for music performance and emotional monitoring.


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