This project explores a shape-changing interface that senses users’ emotions via facial expressions and mirrors it through motion. It serves as a research platform to investigate mutual affective perception and influence between humans and machines.
Extending perceptual crossing into the emotional domain, the system mirrors how humans perceive and influence each other’s emotions nonverbally. As Wensveen et al. note, “in order for a future system to be adaptive it needs to recognize emotions.”
Using a machine learning image classifier model and the Facial Action Coding System (Ekman), the interface expresses affect, making emotional intelligence tangible and interactive. It introduces a new sensing modality to shape-changing interfaces, moving beyond touch and proximity. This work expands emotional expressivity in HCI through embodied, responsive materials.