TR#542:
The Galvactivator: A Glove that Senses and Communicates Skin Conductivity
Rosalind W. Picard and Jocelyn Scheirer
Appears in: Proceedings from the 9th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, New Orleans, August 2001
ABSTRACT
The galvactivator is a glove-like wearable device that senses the
wearer's skin conductivity and maps its values to a bright LED
display, making the skin conductivity level visible. Increases in skin
conductivity tend to be good indicators of
physiological arousalcausing the galvactivator display to glow brightly. The new form
factor of this sensor frees the wearer from the traditional
requirement of being tethered to a rack of equipment; thus, the
device facilitates study of the skin conductivity response in
everyday settings. We recently built and distributed over 1000
galvactivators to audience members at a daylong symposium. To
explore the communication potential of this device, we collected and
analyzed the aggregate brightness levels emitted by the devices
using a video camera focused on the audience. We found that the
brightness tended to be higher at the beginning of presentations and
during interactive sessions, and lower during segments when a
speaker spoke for long periods of time. We also collected anecdotes
from participants about their interpersonal uses of the device. This
paper describes the construction of the galvactivator, our
experiments with the large audience, and several other potentially
useful applications ranging from facilitation of conversation
between two people, to new ways of aiding autistic children.
PDF
Full
list of tech reports