Lifelogs and autonomy

Autonomy seems to be a core issue for lifelogging technology as it can influence our understanding as well as our personal freedom but a comprehensive discussion on the effect of it on the autonomy of the lifelogger and others affected seems still missing in the current academic debate. In this article we provide a preliminary inquiry into this topic. First, the concept of lifelogging will be briefly clarified. In a lifelog, different data sources are combined in an archive that can be used to retrieve information about the lifelogger and the environment in which the lifelogger is situated. Second, we will discuss the effect of lifelogs on an element of autonomy, namely understanding. Lifelogs can both advance understanding as well as hinder it. Information of lifelogs is the result of social processes that can bias information and can be used to manipulate lifeloggers. Third, we will discuss another aspect of autonomy, namely being free from controlling influences. Also on this level the effect of lifelogs is ambiguous. Fourth, we will discuss the conditions under which prospective lifelogger become lifeloggers. By discussing both the effect of lifelogs on autonomy as well as joining the community of lifeloggers we aim to show the many ways in which lifelogs can compromise and advance autonomy. Fifth, some recommendations are provided that aim to address the above mentioned concerns

On the use of movement-based interaction with smart textiles for emotion regulation

Research from psychology has suggested that body movement may directly activate emotional experiences. Movement-based emotion regulation is the most readily available but often un-derutilized strategy for emotion regulation. This research aims to investigate the emotional ef-fects of movement-based interaction and its sensory feedback mechanisms. To this end, we de-veloped a smart clothing prototype, E-motionWear, which reacts to four movements (elbow flexion/extension, shoulder flexion/extension, open and closed arms, neck flexion/extension), fabric-based detection sensors, and three-movement feedback mechanisms (audio, visual and vibrotactile). An experiment was conducted using a combined qualitative and quantitative ap-proach to collect participants’ objective and subjective emotional feelings. Results indicate that there was no interaction effect between movement and feedback mechanism on the final emo-tional results. Participants preferred vibrotactile and audio feedback rather than visual feedback when performing these four kinds of upper body movements. Shoulder flexion/extension and open-closed arm movements were more effective for improving positive emotion than elbow flexion/extension movements. Participants thought that the E-motionWear prototype were comfortable to wear and brought them new emotional experiences. From these results, a set of guidelines were derived that can help frame the design and use of smart clothing to support us-ers’ emotional regulation

Ethics of lifelog technology

In a lifelog, data from different digital sources are combined and processed to form a unified multimedia archive containing information about the quotidian activities of an individual. This dissertation aims to contribute to a responsible development of lifelog technology used by members of the general public for private reasons. Lifelog technology can benefit, but also harm lifeloggers and their social environment. The guiding idea behind this dissertation is that if the ethical challenges can be met and the opportunities realised, the conditions will be optimised for a responsible development and application of the technology. To achieve this, it is important to reflect on these concerns at an early stage of development before the existing rudimentary forms of lifelogs develop into more sophisticated devices with a broad societal application. For this research, a normative framework based on prima facie principles is used. Lifelog technology in its current form is a relatively novel invention and a consensus about its definition is still missing. Therefore the author aims to clarify the characteristics of lifelog technology. Next, the ethical challenges and opportunities of lifelogs are analysed, as they have been discussed in the scholarly literature on the ethics of lifelog technology. Against this backdrop, ethical challenges and opportunities are identified and elaborated. The normative analysis concentrates on two areas of concern, namely (1) the ethical challenges and opportunities that result from the use of lifelog technology, and (2) the conditions under which one becomes a lifelogger. For the first, three sets of key issues are discussed, namely issues to do with (a) privacy, (b) autonomy, and (c) beneficence. For the second, one key set of issues is examined, namely issues to do with autonomy. The discussion of each set of issues is concluded with recommendations designed to tackle the challenges and realise the opportunities

Hacking into the emotion-creativity link Two new approaches to interactive systems that influence the relationship between emotion and creativity

Emotions can influence creative thinking. The ability of people to have the emotions that augment creativity can therefore help them to achieve higher creative task performance. How to design interactive systems that can effectively make use of this potential is, however, still an unanswered question. To explore possible answers to this question we have developed two novel approaches to interactive systems that can be used to effectively hack into the emotion-creativity link. One approach we developed enables a system to hack into the function of motor expressions in emotion regulation, in order to regulate the emotions that happen spontaneously during a creative task. We demonstrate that embodied interactions designed based on motor expressions, while used to interact with a system, can influence an intended emotion, and thereby influence the relationship between emotion and creativity. The second approach that we developed enables a system to hack into the cognitive appraisal processes that help cause emotion during a creative task. We demonstrate that believable computer generated feedback about the originality of a user’s own ideas, can be manipulated to help cause an intended emotion, determine its intensity, and thereby also influence the relationship between emotion and creativity. The contribution of this thesis is the development of two novel approaches to interactive systems that aim to influence the emotion-creativity link and in particular the explication of the mechanisms underlying these approaches. The studies form a novel contribution to both interactive systems research and the creativity sciences