artists’ note Light Perfume: A Fashion Accessory for Synchronization of Nonverbal a b s t r a c t
Communication People mirror each other’s body language as a way of bonding, seeking acceptance and creating rapport. Light Perfume is an interactive wear- Yongsoon Choi, Rahul able system designed in the shape of a bangle that helps Parsani, Xavier Roman, the wearer mirror their partner through lighting and olfactory cues. During a conversation, the Anshul Vikram Pandey Light Perfume system on each person’s wrist uses multiple and Adrian David Cheok inputs from the surrounding environment to generate a synchronized output expression. a partner’s impression positively This consists of a color and Introduction blinking frequency of light along during an interpersonal social in- In this day and age, advanced digital media devices enable us with a perfume fragrance that teraction (Fig. 1). to interact with each other by overcoming spatial and temporal is stimulated simultaneously from each system. The Light restrictions. As Internet usage increases, there is a growing Perfume system was designed debate about whether or not it actually helps to bring people Mirroring to foster social interactions and closer together. This can best be seen through the idea that, make people feel more empathy In social psychology, mirroring is although more people are able to get in touch than ever be- towards each other. closely linked with the “mirror neu- fore through the use of social networks, the quality of com- ron.” Rizzolatti discovered from the munication experienced through these sites will never be of frontal lobes of monkeys that, when the same standard as in-person contact. a monkey performs a single, highly specific action like pulling, In human communication, mirroring the other person’s pushing, tugging, grasping, or putting a peanut in the mouth, body language and speech patterns is one of the most power- different neurons fire in response to these different actions ful ways to build rapport quickly. When you meet someone [1]. But what is astonishing is that the corresponding mirror for the first time, mirroring their seating position, posture, neuron will also fire when one monkey observes another mon- body angle, gestures, expressions and tone of voice make your key performing the same action. partner feel there’s something about you they like and they The discovery of mirror neurons has helped us understand may even describe you as “easy to be with.” This is because a number of human features, from imitation to empathy, mind they see themselves reflected in you. reading and even the human relationship. According to Iaco- Light Perfume was executed based on the idea of helping boni, “Neural mirroring solves the problem of other minds people mirror each other using visual and olfactory cues that (how we can access and understand the minds of others) and strengthen a user’s psychological bond with others. Intended makes intersubjectivity possible, thus facilitating social behav- to be worn daily among friends, family and business associates, ior” [2]. Light Perfume was designed as a wearable fashion accessory in- Whenever we watch someone else doing something (or even corporating sensors and actuators within the form of a bangle. starting to do something), the corresponding mirror neuron In this paper, we begin by discussing mirroring in human might fire in our brains, as a result of which we can read and communication, followed by exploring the effects of light understand the other person’s intentions [3]. and fragrance in social interaction and how they have been used in fashion media. Later, we describe the development Fig. 1. Light Perfume is designed to help wearers mirror their part- of Light Perfume, the interaction design for mirroring and ner’s nonverbal communication cues through lights and olfactory potential applications. We conclude by showing that Light stimulation (© Yongsoon Choi) Perfume has a similar effect to the behavior of mirroring in psychology and that it is possible to use Light Perfume to affect
Yongsoon Choi (teacher), Art & Technology, Sogang University, Korea. E-mail:
© 2013 ISAST doi:10.1162/LEON_a_00638 LEONARDO, Vol. 46, No. 5, pp. 439–444, 2013 439
Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_a_00638 by guest on 26 September 2021 In human relationships, Chartrand judge paintings as less professional. In purposes and rituals. During the reign reported that automatic mimicry (such addition, surveys on reactions to odors of Louis XIV, it was used to mask body as imitation of actions, speech, manner- show that many of our olfactory likes and odors that resulted from the general lack isms, tone of voice and/or body posi- dislikes are based purely on emotional of hygiene [21]. tions) actually creates an association for associations. Scented sachets, which are small the other person [4]. Lakin proposed In fact, efforts to use lights and smell scented bags or containers filled with that this nonverbal, unintentional behav- in fashion have a long history. In many herbs, potpourri or aromatic ingredi- ior of mimicry can act as a kind of “social cultures, especially as a subject of reli- ents, were also applied on handkerchiefs, glue” that helps foster rapport with oth- gious worship, lights have been used as jewelry and other fashion accessories. ers in subtle ways [5]. a symbol of power, divinity and hope. With the rise of the beauty industry, fra- Lights were used in clothes for ceremo- grances started being added to our every- nies to indicate the wearer’s status. For day items, such as cosmetics, skin lotions, Lights and Scent example, shamans in Haiti wore tunics soaps and shampoos, and thus many of to Be Worn designed to reflect the sunlight. Besides, us already wear multiple fragrances in Lights and smell play important roles in in many countries, including many in the our daily lives. reinforcing people’s spatial perception Middle East, the Americas, and Asia, peo- There are very few previous attempts and influencing their activity, moods, ple believe that shiny reflective materials, at the development of wearable smell ac- emotions, judgments and even social re- such as jewelry, could have the power to tuators. Jenny Tillotson (2008) [22,23] lationships. Many architects, interior de- protect against evil [13]. has done extensive work looking at cloth- signers and theater designers have used Historically, integration of lights and ing that dynamically emits scent as an lights to set atmosphere, evoke feelings fashion has been recorded as early as integral part of its design. She explores and moods, and heighten emotional en- the 19th century. From 1870 to 1880 in their use for health, wellness and emo- gagement [6–9]. Moreover, as stated by France and England, shiny jewelry, hair tional applications. A few others have Ulate, lights can heighten emotions in ornaments, brooches and crowns were researched the use of scents for enhanc- situations and increase memory reten- in vogue [14]. The designer Monsieur ing the wearer’s memory and presence. tion [10]. Kaufman and Christensen G. Trouvé designed an electronic acces- Washburn describes several other olfac- also noted that lights also reinforce spa- sory that attached to dancers’ and per- tory displays [24]. Lagardere patented tial perception and affect judgment and formers’ garments [15] (Fig. 2). In the a “light weight jewelry device having activity [11]. S/S collection of 1995, fashion designer illumination and fragrance-emitting According to Fox’s research, smell Hussein Chalayan presented the appli- features” in which the preferred form has positive emotional effects on our cation of artificial lights on his works. is a brooch [25]. Though this device perceptions and judgment [12]. Un- In the next season, he also presented a functioned similarly to the Light Perfume pleasant smells can also affect our per- jacket decorated with small LEDs that system, Lagardere does not address the ceptions and evaluations. In one study, acted like spangles. In the F/W collec- use of such a device to further human the presence of an unpleasant odor led tion of 1999, fashion designer Alexander communication. subjects not only to give lower ratings to McQueen also presented transparent There are some mixed-media designs photographed individuals, but also to acrylic costumes printed with electri- for wearable art that focus on social com- cal circuits and illuminated by battery- munication and interconnection using powered color LEDs [16]. lights or smell. Moi, which was presented Fig. 2. Illustration of Trouvé’s garment. Using lights as fashion is not a break- by Studio 5050, is an LED wire that can through technology anymore, and many be worn as a necklace [26]. It is designed designers and fashion brands have pre- to illuminate when a person is close to sented lighted garments and accesso- the wearer and it helps attract people to ries. Those works have been shown with come and start a conversation. Kettley’s knitted and woven fiber optics, LEDs, Speckled Jewelry consists of five wirelessly EL (electroluminescent) wires and connected necklaces for a friendship sheets, and chemical materials such as group [27]. Choi’s With You presents fluorescent ink to make attractive light three concept prototypes for different expressions over clothing and related ac- interactive wearable and lighted clothing cessories [17,18]. For instance, the Ital- and accessories that explain empathic ian company Luminex developed a way social interaction through fashion gar- of weaving fiberoptic thread into more ments [28]. Kumao’s Audio-activated Dress familiar fabrics [19]. Cutecircuit pro- & Bra are different pieces of clothing duced the Galaxy dress, which has 24,000 that react to environmental sounds [29]. LEDs embroidered onto the surface of Most projects use lighting for expression the fabric, and the Twinkle line, which of visual feedback or attraction. Another are t-shirts with several LED patterns that Choi project called Sound Perfume aims to run on small coin batteries [20]. enrich face-to-face communication while On the other hand, smell has also long strengthening impressions and relation- been adopted in various forms of fash- ships between people [30]. The system ion. Since ancient times, people from is based on the idea that associating a different cultures have used olfactory particular sound and smell with a new expressions as jewelry and fashion acces- acquaintance can help create a unique sories. In ancient Egypt, the use of smell and memorable first impression. Fur- or fragrance was associated with religious thermore, Sound Perfume assumes that,
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_a_00638 by guest on 26 September 2021 2. Mirroring Nonverbal Cues—Subse- quently, the device mirrors the user and his or her partner’s nonverbal cues such as gestures, movements and environmental sound by ac- tuating synchronized lighting and perfume expressions. 3. Sociable Impression—These mir- rored expressions between people can help them feel more sociable and familiar with each other.
Distance Interaction Fig. 3. The interaction procedure of Light Perfume. (© Yongsoon Choi) Light Perfume makes a connection with another person based on distance by finding the displacement between the upon subsequent meetings, experienc- in order to directly stimulate a user’s user and his or her partner. Bluetooth ing the same sound and smell can assist eyes and unobtrusively stimulate a user’s technology is used to create this wireless with recollecting the person and the last nose. The wrist is also a perfect location link between the systems of the two users meeting. for sensors that detect gesticulations and during a social interaction. The system sounds from the surrounding environ- automatically connects to another Light ment. The aroma is created by heating Perfume system when it is within a specific Design of Light Perfume solid perfume and emitted by the wear- range. Light Perfume synchronizes the blinking er’s conscious and subconscious body The control application in the mobile speed and color of LEDs and emits the gestures during a conversation. phone checks the distance and dura- same perfume scent from each person’s Light Perfume can be used in social in- tion of time that other people around device during a social interaction. The teractions that involve physically interact- the wearer are present. Once the link is outputs are chosen based on inputs from ing with someone face-to-face as well as in established, sensed data is continuously the user’s environment, such as noise small groups. We envision Light Perfume shared between the two systems every levels and body gestures. Light Perfume being used as a medium that provides a 137 milliseconds. Based on the tests consists of a control application on the sense of “togetherness” during social in- conducted in the lab, this interval was user’s mobile phone and a Light Perfume teractions, such as conversations, walks, selected to balance the power consumed bangle (Fig. 3). games, and while singing, with friends or and the frequency at which the updates When a user starts communicating strangers. We designed the connection are processed; sudden movements would with his or her partner, the Light Perfume process to facilitate all of these social en- not be recorded with a longer duration accessory makes the connection between counters, making the interactions more between updates. people based on the distance and dura- intimate. Similar to Kettley’s Speckled Jewelry, the tion of contact between the two systems. Light Perfume has been designed with control application locates and identifies The control application constantly consideration to the following three ele- other systems within a range of approxi- checks for devices around the wearer ments: mately 20 meters around the wearer and judges the relationship based on 1. Distance Interaction—A connec- based on the strength of the wireless their proximity. tion is made based on the partner’s signal using Bluetooth. This informa- Once the device connects with a distance. tion contains the strength of the signals partner, the sensed data of the wearer’s nonverbal communication cues are ex- Fig. 4. The configuration of a Light Perfume bangle. (© Yongsoon Choi) changed with the connected partner’s device and mapped to a synchronized level using both the wearer’s and part- ner’s data. The Light Perfume system blinks the LEDs at the same speed and color and actuates the same perfume aroma to achieve synchronized expres- sions. Light Perfume has sensors to detect the wearer’s nonverbal communication cues (Fig. 4). A triple axis accelerometer senses the context of the user’s gestures and a microphone senses the user’s en- vironmental sounds. The system maps these inputs to a particular lighting color, blinking speed and fragrance ex- pression. Light Perfume was designed as a bangle
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from those systems. According to anthro- voice and gesture data are synchronized dimension of impression towards their pologist Edward Hall’s observations and with the user’s cues in the mobile phone partner, using concepts such as “warm,” identification of proxemics in his book application and forwarded to the Light “friendly,” “pleasant,” “close” and “opti- The Hidden Dimension, ways of greeting Perfume bangle to actuate via Bluetooth mistic.” The results of participants’ in- have been observed to change at the communication. The control applica- terviews also showed that they felt closer following distances: intimate (under 18 tion synchronizes the mirroring data to and more familiar with their partners inches), personal (18 inches to 4 feet), between the user and his or her partner during the conversations. Many partici- social (4 feet to 10 feet) and public (over and expresses the same color and blink- pants mentioned an enjoyable experi- 10 feet and up to the range of the wire- ing speed of the LEDs while emitting ence and used phrases such as “easy to be less connection) [31]. Light Perfume sup- the same aroma during a social interper- with,” “fun,” “interact,” and “affect” that ports the connection between systems in sonal interaction (Fig. 5). are related to the interactions with the the social circle and chooses the nearest The structure of Light Perfume was de- partner, as opposed to phrases related to signal to connect and synchronize with. signed to heat the solid perfumes using their internal feelings. a resistor. The lighting and perfume ac- As a result, we found that Light Perfume Mirroring Nonverbal tuator has a string of five RGB LEDs and affects people’s mirroring experience in Cues eight channels of perfume. To make a a fashion similar to that demonstrated small bangle actuator, we used LEDs with by Gueguen’s psychological research on It is sometimes not sufficient to fully a bulb size of 5 mm and designed the the effect of mirroring nonverbal com- express human emotions and contexts eight different perfume containers, each munication cues in a social conversation. with the voice-based and/or text-based containing a 12 Ω resistor for heating the In addition, through the analysis of communication usually used in digital solid perfume. the video recordings, we found the po- media. Nonverbal cues such as body ges- tential possibility of using Light Perfume tures, facial expressions, tone of voice, as an entertainment accessory. Some eye contact, hugs and hand-holding can Sociable Impression participants started their conversation sometimes explain the intended mental According to the research of Gueguen with Light Perfume as a topic. Once they and intrinsic information more truly et al. on the effect of mirroring, when a realized their Light Perfume bangles were and with more human warmth. Burgoon stranger mimics the verbal and nonver- linked to each other, we could see them stated that 60% of our communication bal expressions of a subject, that subject shake their arms together and make consists of nonverbal cues, and they play displayed higher positive judgment of noises on seeing the synchronized ex- an important role in clearly getting our the mimicker [33]. The mirroring also pressions (Color Plate B). messages across [32]. produced various positive social behav- Moreover, nonverbal and rich sensa- iors in the subject, such as helping out tional communication can affect our so- with a request made by the mimicker. cial behavior and relationships as well. We conducted a user study with 24 Potential Applications It helps us develop stronger emotional participants to determine whether the Lighting and fragrance actuators can be connections, such as empathy, with effect of the Light Perfume experience embedded into diverse fashion acces- other people as compared to simple on- can make a user feel emotions similar to sory forms such as rings, gloves, watches, screen interactions. It can also encour- those produced from more traditional armbands, cuffs, necklaces, bracelets and age people to have realistic interpersonal mirroring behavior, as well as lead to buttons (Fig. 6). This enables the design interactions based on the sharing of con- positive impressions about his or her of personalizable electronic lighting textual emotional information. partner. Huma used the Semantic Dif- and olfactory accessories that people As we mentioned earlier, the Light ferential (SD) method for impression can wear in their daily lives. Moreover, Perfume bangle has an accelerometer, formation assessment [34], and this has because Light Perfume needs to work with which senses the context of the user’s been adapted and pretested in our user a mobile application in a smartphone, it gestures and movements, and a micro- study. All experiments were recorded by can also be used as a lighting and olfac- phone, which senses the user’s voice video camera for later analysis. tory platform. It can be integrated with and background sounds of his or her The SD results showed that all partici- different sensors, content and even the communication partner. The partner’s pants were enhanced in their sociability Internet through the smartphone, aid-
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_a_00638 by guest on 26 September 2021 consumers’ levels of satisfaction, stress, health and well-being. Light Perfume can be used as a personalized anti-stress and meditation tool for the wearer’s well- being. 2. Social space for personal branding and empathic communication: The mirroring expression from the Light Perfume acces- sory can facilitate people’s social interac- tion during face-to-face communication, and the synchronized lighting and olfac- tory expression can also be used for sen- sory branding tools in many different applications. Companies or individuals who need to have a distinguished brand, such as politicians or celebrities, can develop a unique trademark using the color and blinking rhythm of lights and even blend Fig. 6. One possible future design of Light Perfume in a bracelet form (rendered image). new fragrances. They can push their (© Yongsoon Choi) trademark information to their clients, audiences, fans and supporters to en- ing the development of multiple applica- Light Perfume can help them strengthen hance their image and strengthen the tions and services. the emotional bond with their target emotional connection with them. For We believe that Light Perfume will en- customers during interactions through example, a customer visiting a shop can able a more empathic communication synchronized lighting and olfactory ex- unconsciously feel the subtle lighting and entertainment service that will pressions by enabling people to have an and scent expressions that convey the benefit both business and society. As enjoyable time together. For example, in brand’s trademark from his or her Light an empathic communication tool, Light the case of football fans jumping up and Perfume accessory. It can enhance their Perfume helps synchronize people’s non- down, yelling, singing, dancing and clap- impression and experience and increase verbal cues during physical interactions ping together, the synchronized lighting their loyalty and emotional connection through visual and olfactory stimulation. and scent expressions from Light Perfume to that brand. People can enhance their bonding, unity can make people feel perfectly synchro- 3. Public space for integration with con- and friendly togetherness using Light nized and connected with others. This tents, objects and space: With minor modi- Perfume during their face-to-face en is similar to the feeling of wearing a uni- fication to the currentLight Perfume app, counters (Fig. 7). form. we can broadcast to Light Perfume acces- We consume many different kinds of In ubiquitous media environments, a sories to simultaneously connect them entertainment content such as TV, film, personalized, enjoyable lighting and ol- with others in a specific area or around music, games and sports. Advertisers and factory accessory can be utilized in three the world through the Internet regard- marketing agencies have utilized these major interaction regions: (1) wearer less of space and time restrictions. properties in different ways to create an and individual space, (2) social space, For example, the Light Perfume acces- emotional connection with their target and (3) public space (Fig. 8): sory could be used to link people who audiences, keeping their brand relevant 1. Wearer and individual space for a are in a club, at a concert or sports sta- and generating tremendous marketing healthy life: Lighting and colors have a dium. It would enable them to interact results. profound influence on patients’ and with each other easily and closely. It
Fig. 7. Light Perfume helps people develop empathy during commu- Fig. 8. The shared experience from subtle mirroring during nication and makes them feel bonded and friendlier towards each interaction helps people have an enjoyable time together. other. (© Yongsoon Choi) (© Yongsoon Choi)
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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_a_00638 by guest on 26 September 2021 could also connect artists or sports play- ple feeling more empathy towards each Art. Sound, Vision and the New Screen. Commu- nications,” in Computer and Information Science 2008. ers with their audiences to enhance the other in their social interactions. 7(6): pp. 403–417. emotional connection of their fans. Notes and References 24. Washburn, D.A. and L.M. Jones, “Could Olfac- Moreover, if a person is watching a tory Displays Improve Data Visualization?” Computing football game on television, he or she Unedited references as provided by the authors. in Science and Engineering, 2004. 6(6): pp. 80–83. could receive the corresponding mir- 1. Rizzolatti, G. and L. Craighero, The mirror- 25. Patent of illuminated and fragrance-releasing rored team signal from the television in neuron system. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 2004, jewelry,
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