EmotoCouch: An exploration in interactive furniture

EmotoCouch is a prototype exploring how furniture could be augmented as part of a smart home. It uses lights, patterns, and haptics to explore possibilities for interactive furniture. Specifically, EmotoCouch was designed to explore how effectively furniture could convey a range of emotions to people around it.

We used the Circumplex model of emotion to identify six emotions to covey that span the range of valence and arousal (see below). Based on initial studies and the literature, we picked colours, patterns and haptic signals to represent them.

For more details on the working prototype and research findings, please refer to the video and publications listed below.