A haptic emotional model for audio system interface

Abstract

The presented study deals with the problem of selecting music content in digital media, such as mp3 file collections. Usually, to select a specific music file (e.g. a song), one has to directly use some a priori data about the file content, e.g. the artist's name, genre, year of release, or the like. In many situations, however, this data is not visible, does not offer enough information, or otherwise does not provide for any immediately accessible mode for selecting the audio content. With the appropriate models of interaction, haptic output devices have a number of advantages for such selection tasks. First, as haptically enabled systems are becoming common, users are becoming more and more familiar with this modality of user-system interaction. Results of recent studies also suggest that the sense of touch may be more closely associated with moods and emotions than other modalities of interaction. Finally, the sense of touch is available without interference with visual or auditory channels. In the presented study, a model is proposed that links emotional states apparently evoked by music content to specific haptic stimuli. An experiment is conducted to verify tactile-emotive associations assumed by the model, and also to explore whether music specific characteristics, such as genre, would directly be related to haptic sensations. Experimental results obtained are discussed and used to design a novel user interface for an audio system. The envisaged interface would allow for selecting music through tactile interactions. The study's conclusions are drawn, and future work is outlined. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.