Body movement as a modality to express and regulate emotions in technology-mediated activity

Nadia Berthouze (University College London)

Commentator: Marion Godman (Cambridge)

The increased cost-effectiveness of technology capable of sensing body movement has led to this technology becoming more pervasive, and with it, there has been increased interest for research in this area.  In addition, studies in psychology and neuroscience have shown that posture and body movement affect emotional state, cognitive abilities and attitude towards the surrounding environment. In this talk, I will look at these two roles of body movement in relation to emotions. First, I will report on our studies aimed at understanding body expressions and touch behaviour as a means for expressing affect in whole-body games and in clinical contexts. Then I will present our studies aimed at investigating how multimodal perception of body movement qualities can be used to regulate people’s emotional states in technology-mediated rehabilitation.