{"id":171399,"date":"2014-09-13T10:19:23","date_gmt":"2014-09-13T10:19:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/project\/emotocouch-an-exploration-in-interactive-furniture\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T12:52:59","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T19:52:59","slug":"emotocouch-an-exploration-in-interactive-furniture","status":"publish","type":"msr-project","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/project\/emotocouch-an-exploration-in-interactive-furniture\/","title":{"rendered":"EmotoCouch: An exploration in interactive furniture"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Note: This project has reached its conclusion. These pages are maintained for reference and archival purposes.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-213036\" src=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/emotocouch-couch.png\" alt=\"emotocouch-couch\" width=\"713\" height=\"403\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/emotocouch-couch.png 713w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/emotocouch-couch-300x170.png 300w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/emotocouch-couch-343x193.png 343w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 713px) 100vw, 713px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-213037\" src=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/emotocouch-circumplex.png\" alt=\"emotocouch-circumplex\" width=\"811\" height=\"655\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/emotocouch-circumplex.png 811w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/emotocouch-circumplex-300x242.png 300w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/emotocouch-circumplex-768x620.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 811px) 100vw, 811px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>For more details on the working prototype and research findings, please refer to the video and publications listed below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Note: This project has reached its conclusion. These pages are maintained for reference and archival purposes. 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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"msr-url-field":"","msr-podcast-episode":"","msrModifiedDate":"","msrModifiedDateEnabled":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_classifai_error":"","footnotes":""},"research-area":[13552,13554],"msr-locale":[268875],"msr-impact-theme":[],"msr-pillar":[],"class_list":["post-171399","msr-project","type-msr-project","status-publish","hentry","msr-research-area-hardware-devices","msr-research-area-human-computer-interaction","msr-locale-en_us","msr-archive-status-complete"],"msr_project_start":"2014-09-13","related-publications":[167497,167498],"related-downloads":[],"related-videos":[191405],"related-groups":[144936],"related-events":[],"related-opportunities":[],"related-posts":[],"related-articles":[],"tab-content":[{"id":0,"name":"Platforms","content":"<div id=\"en-usprojectsemotocouchdefault\" class=\"page-content\">\r\n\r\nThe EmotoCouch prototype uses two Microsoft Research platforms which are publicly available:\r\n\r\n<img class=\"wp-image-213038 alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/LoT-hero-redB-300x231.png\" alt=\"LoT-hero-redB\" width=\"152\" height=\"117\" \/>\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/lab-of-things.com\/\">Lab of Things<\/a> (LoT) is a flexible platform for experimental research that uses connected devices in homes and beyond.\r\n\r\n<img class=\"size-full wp-image-213039 alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/gadgeteer.jpg\" alt=\"gadgeteer\" width=\"252\" height=\"48\" \/>\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/netmf.com\/gadgeteer\/\">Microsoft .NET Gadgeteer<\/a> is a hardware prototyping platform using C# and Visual Studio.\r\n\r\n<\/div>"}],"related-researchers":[{"type":"user_nicename","display_name":"A.J. Brush","user_id":30886,"people_section":"Group 1","alias":"ajbrush"},{"type":"user_nicename","display_name":"Scott Saponas","user_id":33715,"people_section":"Group 1","alias":"ssaponas"}],"msr_research_lab":[],"msr_impact_theme":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-project\/171399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-project"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/msr-project"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-project\/171399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1176588,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-project\/171399\/revisions\/1176588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"msr-research-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-area?post=171399"},{"taxonomy":"msr-locale","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-locale?post=171399"},{"taxonomy":"msr-impact-theme","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-impact-theme?post=171399"},{"taxonomy":"msr-pillar","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-pillar?post=171399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}