Wearable emotion feedback: color and size work across cultures, speed varies

A team of researchers (Wrobel, Barkana, Landowska) conducted a cross-cultural study to address a key challenge in wearable computing: how to unobtrusively communicate sensed emotional states back to the user. While realistic avatars are effective, they are often unsuitable for the limited screen space of wearables. Abstract geometric animations offer a promising alternative, but their cross-cultural validity was unknown. The study involved 105 participants from Poland and Turkey, who mapped emotions to visual parameters including color, shape, size, speed, and animation type.

The results showed that color and object size are universally understood as carriers of emotional meaning, making them suitable for global visualization models. However, animation speed revealed cultural variation in dynamic range preferences, indicating that a one-size-fits-all approach may not work for all parameters. These findings lay the groundwork for developing generative visualization algorithms that translate continuous sensor data into intuitive, culturally relevant feedback for pervasive environments. The paper has been accepted for presentation at the EmotionSense workshop within PerCom 2026 in Pisa, Italy.