Exploring the Design Space for Body Transformation Wearables to Support Physical Activity through Sensitizing and Bodystorming

Negative or disturbed body perceptions are often interwoven with people's physical inactivity. While wearables can support body perception changes (body transformation), the design space of body transformation wearables supporting physical activity remains narrow. To expand this design space, we conducted an embodied co-design workshop with users. Using conceptual and tangible sensitizing tools, we explored/reflected on bodily sensations at three moments of movement execution (before/during/after). Conceptual tools were used to evoke/reflect/capture past lived experiences, while tangible tools were used as ideation probes for sensory bodystorming. Two design concepts emerged, reflecting diverging approaches to body transformation wearables: one focused on reminders and movement correction; the other on sensory augmentation and facilitation. We reflect on how each facilitates useful representations of body sensations during movement, and present methodological recommendations for designing technology for sensory augmentation in this area. Finally, we propose a preliminary prototype based on our design concepts and discuss future steps

As Light as You Aspire to Be: Changing body perception with sound to support physical activity

Supporting exercise adherence through technology remains an important HCI challenge. Recent works showed that altering walking sounds leads people perceiving themselves as thinner/lighter, happier and walking more dynamically. While this novel approach shows potential for physical activity, it raises critical questions impacting technology design. We ran two studies in the context of exertion (gym-step, stairs-climbing) to investigate how individual factors impact the effect of sound and the duration of the after-effects. The results confirm that the effects of sound in body-perception occur even in physically demanding situations and through ubiquitous wearable devices. We also show that the effect of sound interacted with participants’ body weight and masculinity/femininity aspirations, but not with gender. Additionally, changes in body-perceptions did not hold once the feedback stopped; however, body-feelings or behavioural changes appeared to persist for longer. We discuss the results in terms of malleability of body-perception and highlight opportunities for supporting exercise adherence

Effects of pitch and musical sounds on body-representations when moving with sound

The effects of music on bodily movement and feelings, such as when people are dancing or engaged in physical activity, are well-documented¿people may move in response to the sound cues, feel powerful, less tired. How sounds and bodily movements relate to create such effects? Here we deconstruct the problem and investigate how different auditory features affect people's body-representation and feelings even when paired with the same movement. In three experiments, participants executed a simple arm raise synchronised with changing pitch in simple tones (Experiment 1), rich musical sounds (Experiment 2) and within different frequency ranges (Experiment 3), while we recorded indirect and direct measures on their movement, body-representations and feelings. Changes in pitch influenced people's general emotional state as well as the various bodily dimensions investigated¿movement, proprioceptive awareness and feelings about one's body and movement. Adding harmonic content amplified the differences between ascending and descending sounds, while shifting the absolute frequency range had a general effect on movement amplitude, bodily feelings and emotional state. These results provide new insights in the role of auditory and musical features in dance and exercise, and have implications for the design of sound-based applications supporting movement expression, physical activity, or rehabilitation.We acknowledge funding by the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación (PID2019-105579RB-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033) and the European Research Council Grant (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 101002711). JL is funded by the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitivity of Spain (doctoral training Grant BES-2017-080471). OD is funded by the Volkswagen Foundation (Co-Sense grant). FB is partially funded by the ELEMENT project (ANR-18-CE33-0002)

Musical expectancy within movement sonification to overcome low self-efficacy

While engaging in physical activity is important for a healthy lifestyle, low self-efficacy, i.e. one's belief in one's own ability, can prevent engagement. Sound has been used in a variety of ways for physical activity: movement sonification to inform about movement, music to encourage and direct movement, and auditory illusions to adapt people's bodily representation and movement behaviour. However, no approach provides the whole picture when considering low self-efficacy. For example, sonification does not encourage movement past a person's expectation of their ability, music gives no information of one's capabilities, and auditory illusions do not direct changes in movement behaviour in a directed way. This thesis proposes a combined method that leverages the agency felt over sonification, our embodiment of music and movement altering feedback to design \textit{``musical expectancy sonifications''} which incorporate musical expectancy within sonification to alter movement perception and behaviour. This thesis proposes a Movement Sonification Expectation Model (MoSEM), which explores expectation within a movement sonification impact on people's perception of their abilities and the way they move. This MoSEM is then interrogated and developed in four initial control studies that investigate these sonifications for different types of movement as well as how they interact with one's expectation of a given movement. These findings led to an exploration of how the MoSEM can be applied to design sonification to support low-self efficacy in two case study populations: chronic pain rehabilitation, including one control study and one mixed methods study, and general well-being, including one interview study and two control studies. These studies show the impact of musical expectation on people's movement perception and behaviour. The findings from this thesis demonstrate not only how sonifications can be designed to use musical expectancy, but also shows a number of considerations that are needed when designing movement sonifications

Musical Cities

Musical Cities represents an innovative approach to scholarly research and dissemination. A digital and interactive 'book', it explores the rhythms of our cities, and the role they play in our everyday urban lives, through the use of sound and music. Sara Adhitya first discusses why we should listen to urban rhythms in order to design more liveable and sustainable cities, before demonstrating how we can do so through various acoustic communication techniques. Using audio-visual examples, Musical Cities takes the ‘listener’ on an interactive journey, revealing how sound and music can be used to represent, compose, perform and interact with the city. Through case studies of urban projects developed in Paris, Perth, Venice and London, Adhitya demonstrates how the power of music, and the practice of listening, can help us to compose more accessible, inclusive, engaging, enjoyable, and ultimately more sustainable cities