MOBILE AND WEARABLE INTERFACES FOR NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION AND EXPRESSION

Baker’s work investigates methods to relay ‘felt’ experience and touch sensation, translate it through a wearable and mobile media interfaces. Portable and increasingly ubiquitous forms of mobile media and communication devices have transformed the ways in which we transmit our affective and emotional “states”, predominantly via text and language. However, they do not yet effectively capture the many layers of non-verbal expression that contribute to communication. New modalities to connect people over distance, in embodied, emotionally, felt, and engaging ways is an on-going concern. There is still scope to explore how existing and emerging technologies might translate visual content from mobile video imagery of associated, ascribed, and intended emotions or sensations expressed (by users), into a form of affection or touch through wearable interfaces, such as skin-like tactile smart materials and textile. Baker’s practice-based PhD MINDtouch (2010) was concerned with expressive, participatory, and collaborative mobile media interaction that enabled the sensing of liveness and presence over the mobile network. Current work focuses on created haptic and wearable garments that act as sensing and haptic interfaces for non-verbal communication and expression. This paper will look at Baker’s various projects to explore this territory.