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Body Metrics: Digital Reflection

Visitors wore a biometric sensor band that turned their physiological and emotional signals into a personal radial profile, then showed how closely it matched other visitors'.

Close view of the Digital Reflection touchscreen in Body Metrics: a radial profile wheel with the visitor's own pixelated face at the center, segments labeled with affective and physiological states such as PLEASED, TENSE, ACTIVE, and QUIET, ringed by activity and social-communication scales.
Digital Reflection, Body Metrics, The Tech Interactive, San Jose. Press-kit image, 2014–2016.
Role
Concept, Development Lead, Evaluation
Organization
The Tech Interactive (institutional), San Jose
Years
2013–2016
Location
San Jose, CA
Category
Health-experience design
Status
Completed

What it is. A station inside Body Metrics at The Tech Interactive, the permanent wearable-biometrics exhibition that opened in 2016 (AAM Gold MUSE, 2016). A visitor wore a biometric sensor band with a small handheld screen. Their signals were rendered into a personal radial profile, the visitor’s own face at the center, then placed next to other visitors’ profiles with a similarity score so a private reading became a social one.

The design problem. Most quantified-self products hand back a number. The harder question was making someone’s own physiological and emotional signal legible to them in a few seconds, and giving that reading a reason to be shared rather than just observed.

The studio’s role. Concept, Development Lead, and Evaluation on the Tech Interactive side. The interactive build was a partnership with Local Projects. Heart-rate variability, electrodermal activity, breathing, and attention measures were the inputs the profile was built from. Body Metrics overall received the AAM Gold MUSE Award (2016); see the Body Metrics page for the full record.

Two radial profile wheels shown side by side on the Digital Reflection wall with an overall similarity percentage between them, each captioned with a generated profile type and the visitor's face at the center.
Digital Reflection similarity view, Body Metrics. Press-kit image, 2014–2016.

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Related work

  • 2013–2016

    Body Metrics

    A permanent exhibition on wearable biometrics, biofeedback, and mindfulness at The Tech Interactive, San Jose. Visitors used real-time physiologic data to explore attention, stress, and emotional state. AAM Gold MUSE Award (2016).