Empathy Replicator™ -- November 2016
Summary: For the class Design: Objects and Interaction, we were assigned to make a wearable. Since I am interested in wearable devices for mental health, I wanted to make a mask that shows how people lie about their emotions as part of daily life. While initially my inclination was to make something high tech, as I always have when working in wearables, I was encouraged to take it in a different direction. I explored other ways to change expression, and ended up with the Empathy Replicator™, a product designed to help customer service workers spare their facial muscles from consistent effort. Instead of having to produce a genuine smile with crinkling eyes, or having to feign concern, one can switch in various emotions with this glasses-like structure. What I Learned: Genuine emotions are largely expressed in the eyes, as well as laser cutting and manipulating the resulting acrylic by conforming it to the curve of a face with a heat gun.
Documentation: video (for which I composed the music), class blog post