Resonant Relaxation: Affective Haptics

Work In Progress - Eurohaptics Conference 2024 The ongoing shift towards digital sedentary lifestyles has increased stress in daily life and calls for innovative approaches to improve mental and physical health. Resonant Relaxation explores the capabilities of AI-generated audio for affective haptic feedback to create experiences that induce relaxation and enhance emotional well-being and productivity. Our primary goal was to enhance users' emotional well-being during productivity or relaxation sessions by providing personalised audio-based haptic experiences. We focused on creating a baseline state for relaxation, which could serve as an emotional baseline to facilitate a flow state. We developed a React-based web application to generate customised haptic patterns. The haptic output included an amplitude-modulated sine wave as the baseline and AI-generated "sparkles", harmonically based on the baseline frequency representing the closest musical note to that frequency. Based on this musical note using the ChatGPT API, we created MIDI compositions, converted them into waveforms with Tone.js, an OpenSource Javascript Libary, and played them through voice coil actuators. "AI Sparkles" For the sparkles, we prompted the LLM with harmonic and disharmonic components based on the baseline. Using few-shot prompting, we provided examples of the note notations needed for correct parsing into a MIDI file that can generate output with Tone.js instruments. This allowed us to generate adjustable haptic outputs that maintained harmony with the baseline frequency, effectively integrating musical theory into the haptic feedback system. To further reduce haptic numbness, we conceptualised three types of “sparkles”:

Future research efforts will concentrate on enhancing the prototype's functionalities in light of preliminary results. A more rigorous and comprehensive user testing phase will be conducted to collect quantitative data on the system's performance and user satisfaction. Additionally, long-term studies are essential to evaluate the impact of consistent use on emotional well-being and productivity. Furthermore, investigating various embodiments and integration techniques for haptic actuators may improve the system's comfort and usability.