Project

WearVibe

Samantha Chan

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Media Lab Research Theme: Connected Mind + Body

Specifically crafted sensory stimulation can influence brain function and potentially improve cognition. In this project, we developed software for wearable devices to improve attention using rhythmic sound, light, and vibration. Our results showed that the wearables could improve sustained attention and modulated brain activity.

Our current research focuses particularly on altering physiology using vibration which can be delivered through consumer smartwatches. We are exploring how different patterns of vibration can improve cognitive performance and modify physiology, with potential benefits for attention, mood, exercise performance, and overall health.

Paper Link

WearVibe Smartwatch Code

Nathan W Whitmore*, Samantha Chan*, Jingru Zhang, Patrick Chwalek, Sam Chin, and Pattie Maes. 2024. Improving Attention Using Wearables via Haptic and Multimodal Rhythmic Stimuli. In Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 80, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642256

Study 1 Findings: Combined sound and light stimuli from a glasses device provided the strongest improvement to attention but were the least usable and socially acceptable. Haptic vibration stimuli from a wristband also improved attention and were the most usable and socially acceptable.

Study 2 Findings: Our field study with haptic stimuli from a smartwatch showed that such systems can be easy to use and were used frequently in a range of contexts but more exploration is needed to improve the comfort.

Publication Research

Improving Attention Using Wearables via Haptic and Multimodal Rhythmic Stimuli

Nathan Whitmore*, Samantha Chan*, Jingru Zhang, Patrick Chwalek, Sam Chin, and Pattie Maes. 2024. Improving Attention Using Wearables via Haptic and Multimodal Rhythmic Stimuli. In Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’24), May 11–16, 2024, Hon- olulu, HI, USA. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 14 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/ 3613904.3642256 (*equal contribution)

Research Topics

#human-computer interaction #cognition