A four quadrant Multipath (TM) force resistor was embedded into the button of a Logictech mouse, see figure 3-1. The resistance of the front sensor can be compared to that of the back one to yield the force and direction information found in a sentograph. This signal and the data from the other bio sensors were collected on a Toshiba Satellite (TM) laptop computer, using a Thought Technology Ltd. FlexComp signal sampler and software. The force sensor was connected to the FlexComp with two Thought Technology GSR sensors. The numerical computation package MATLAB (TM) was used for graphing, and the SPSS 7.5 for Windows (TM) for the statistical data analysis.
[Figure 3-1: The sentic mouse uses a force sensor on the index button to measure the dynamic finger pressure of a user.]
Affective images were displayed on a 700 series HP machine with a 24
inch monitor running TCL. The TCL script
provided a GUI interface for the user to manipulate. With each
photo, the largest being 1024 x 768 pixels, there was a button for the
user to click marked "Next". After viewing the picture, the user was
presented with two slider widgets labeled - "Did you like this
picture?" to measure valence, and "How intensely did you feel
like/dislike?" to measure arousal. The sliders were scaled from -3
to +3 for valence, and 0 through 6 for intensity. The manipulation
of these sliders by the subject formed the basis for our self-reported
reports.