Communicating Emotions through Technological Interfaces
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Communicating with loved ones, lovers, partners, and spouses involves naturally expressing, handling and understanding emotions. In a highly technologically society, interaction in this context is nowadays commonly assisted by technological interfaces, such as cell phones and computers. How is emotion handled and transmitted throughout these interfaces? How do people express intimate emotions in technological mediated communication systems? Are those systems prepared to handle emotions without corrupting them? In the perspective of Communication Design and Interaction Design, this chapter discusses some of the recent literature about the subject and outlines some possible directions for the development of technological mediated communication interfaces, which might promote emotional expression discourses. Body and mind work together when dealing with emotions: the body expresses emotion (tone of voice, facial expressions, body posture, physiological data); the mind works with feelings and is sensitive to external ideas. Without a face-to-face communication, the emotional expression of the body might not be seen. Developments in communication interfaces indicate a growth in technology that provides body presence: incorporating video image, real time speech, integrating sensors, as a way to promote closeness. But the mind is resourceful and even without that input it has been shown that, in computer mediated communication, the communication of emotions is more explicit and more frequently, in opposition to face-to-face communication. Some studies suggest that the input of subjective information related to emotions should be considered, in preference to objective information as physiological data: that personal emotional interpretation is a richer field to explore, in order to communicate emotions. The use of ambiguous and evocative context driven, personal, narrative related elements, seems to be a promising direction.