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Emotishare: Enabling Computer Mediated Emotion Communication Through Networked Devices
Dissertation   Open access

Emotishare: Enabling Computer Mediated Emotion Communication Through Networked Devices

Matthew Willis
University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
Doctor of Philosophy, University of the Sunshine Coast
2011
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25907/00209
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Abstract

affective computing computer-mediated communication human-computer interaction online social networks social networks emotion emotional communication emotional contagion empathy emotishare
Information and Communication Technology devices are increasingly becoming an integral part of today's 'digital lifestyle' and allow their users to remain in constant contact with friends, family and colleagues. As computer networks and devices facilitate more of our daily interactions, important parts of the communication process are being left behind. Specifically, emotional communication is not well supported - often resulting in the communication being poorly represented or misunderstood. Currently, computer mediated communications (CMC) do not adequately support emotional communication and response between members of a social group. While widgets exist allowing for the expression of emoticons, they are often attached to media objects or a textual message that can obscure the emotion message. It is not clear how these messages are interpreted, whether they hold any value or whether they have any impact on the people involved in the interaction. In addition, current attempts at providing emotional cues in these technologies do not consider attributes such as group size, the purpose of the group and the type of friendships that they are attempting to facilitate. This thesis presents the design, development and trial of a system (named Emotishare) to facilitate the sharing of emotional state using networked devices. The Emotishare system was developed without any of the distractions of current social networking services (such as Facebook (2011a) style 'wall postings' or news feeds) that may obscure the emotion message. This provided an environment in which the number of variables relating to cause and effect could be controlled within the system trials (such as removing the uncertainty of an emotion response being directed toward a text-based message or another user's reported emotional state).

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