[ISEA2019] Paper: Mengyu Chen, Jing Yan & Yin Yu — Biometric Visceral Interface: A Soft Robotic Immersive System for Extended Perception

Abstract

Keywords: Data Visceralization, Soft Robotics, Haptics, Virtual Reality, Affective Computing, Biometrics

The concept of a Biometric Visceral Interface originates from a search for an alternative to the visual presentation of biometric data. Departing from the habit brought by the spectacular society of seeing and understanding, Biometric Visceral Interfaces challenge the common practices of communication based upon visual memory and quantified abstraction of biological phenomena. The aim of such interfaces is to extend human perception of body information beyond visual paradigm and semiotic objects. A set of biomorphic designs of soft robotic prosthetics is introduced here to define a new human-machine interface that allows the users to have affective interpersonal communication. We describe how a multisensory immersive system can reconstruct a user’s body schema in virtual space and visceralize biometric data into the user’s body as a new way to perceive the presence of others.

  • Mengyu Chen is a new media artist and designer whose work examines how issues of network infrastructure, geopolitics, and virtual reality can affect our perception of self and society. He holds an MFA in Digital + Media at RISD, USA, and currently is a PhD student in Media Arts and Technology at UCSB, USA.
  • Jing Yan is a media artist and interaction designer. Her work seeks, presents and argues for the essential qualities of materials, life beings, and hybrid entities in computational virtual and physical environments. She holds an MS in Media Arts and Technology at UCSB, USA, and a BA in Advertising from Tongji University, China.
  • Yin Yu is a PhD student in Media Arts and Technology at UCSB, USA. Her work explores the potential of multimedia interactive environments and the relationship between architecture and music by means of emerging technologies. She has a BS in EE, and two master’s degrees in Information Technology and Interior Architecture.

Full text (PDF) p. 539-542

This work was supervised by Professor Yon Visell with space and equipment provided by the RE Touch Lab, and the Innovation Workshop at CNSI of UC Santa Barbara, USA.