In this talk, we will introduce the concept of expressive biosignals as a novel social cue to improve interpersonal communication. Expressive biosignals are sensed physiological data revealed between people to provide a deeper understanding of each other’s psychological states. We will present opportunities and challenges in integrating expressive biosignals into social contexts, highlighting our research on Animo - a smartwatch application we built and deployed that enables people to share and view each other’s biosignals. We will discuss new communication patterns afforded by expressive biosignals systems, as well as the potential for these systems to foster authentic emotional expression and lightweight social connection between people. This research scopes the design space for expressive biosignals and informs future interventions for a variety of social contexts, including interpersonal relationships, remote communication, and well-being. We will end the talk with a discussion on the steps we are taking next to deploy this work more broadly.
Fannie Liu is a 4th year Ph.D. student at Carnegie Mellon University at the Human-Computer Interaction Institute, advised by Dr. Laura Dabbish and Dr. Geoff Kaufman. She is currently a research intern at Snap Inc. Her research focuses on building social technologies that facilitate empathy and connection between people. Her work has been published in top academic conferences such as CSCW and UbiComp. Fannie is a recipient of CMU’s Center for Machine Learning and Health fellowship in Digital Health. Prior to CMU, she was a Software Engineer at LinkedIn. She received a BS in Digital Media Design and MS in Computer Graphics and Game Technology from the University of Pennsylvania. More info can be found at fannieliu.com.
Andrés Monroy-Hernández is a lead research scientist at Snap Inc. where he manages the human-computer interaction research team. He is also an affiliate professor at the University of Washington. His work focuses on the design and study of social computing technologies. His research has received best paper awards at CHI, CSCW, HCOMP, and ICWSM, and featured in The New York Times, CNN, Wired, NPR, BBC, and The Economist. Andrés was named one of the 35 Innovators under 35 by the MIT Technology Review magazine Latin America, and one the most influential Latinos in Tech by CNET. He holds a master’s and Ph.D. from MIT, and a BS from Tec de Monterrey in México. More info can be found at andresmh.com.