Embodied Cognition

Forrest Brandt, Sam Stromberg, Rita Ling, Yuetian Wang. Professor Kimiko Ryokai. Tangible User Interfaces, Fall 2021

Breathing

In the first round, Forrest and Sam were partners while Yuetian and Rita were partners. The next round Forrest and Rita were partners while Yuetian and Sam were partners. We all noticed the difficulties in following the other person’s breath because of the subtlety of the movement. Some were easier to follow than others, for instance Rita’s partners could feel more movement in her whole body which indicated her breathing, while Forrest and Sam were very difficult to tell when they were breathing. We also noticed the contact points differed depending on the partners and if their height was closely related. The more solid the contact, the easier it was to get in rhythm with their partner’s breath. When we could get in rhythm, it was very difficult to know if they were breathing out or in, and we couldn’t pick up on audio queues due to the ambient noise. In addition, it was a bit chilly outside so all of us were wearing multiple layers which made feeling each other’s breath even more difficult.

Walking

In the first round, Yuetian and Sam were partners while Rita and Forrest were partners. The next round Forrest and Yuetian were partners while Rita and Sam were partners. It was extremely difficult as the follower (walking backwards) not to step on the leader’s feet. Initially we could keep in step but as the walking continued, it was very difficult to get back in sync once that connection was lost. We felt unbalanced and would use our arms as additional points of contact. Differences in height added difficulty in maintaining contact with our partner. Also cadence was extremely important. We reflected on how one could hold their breath to find the other’s breath in the breathing exercise, but that wasn’t something we could do in the walking exercise. Forrest and Sam tried having the person walking backwards leading the exercise and found it much easier since the person could keep contact with their legs to indicate when the person walking backwards made a step.

Implications for TUI Midterm Project

This exercise showed us the importance of ancillary features and how those can add value to our project. When walking forward/backwards, we all noticed the importance our arms played in maintaining contact, and how despite the action intending to move in a straight line, there were side-to-side movements when walking to maintain balance whenever one foot was lifted off the ground. LEGOs have a very distinct visual and tactile aspect to them. So it will be interesting as to how we explore connections between those two features and incorporate other senses as well. And LEGOs are abstract and he blocks with limited colors and shapes can be used as an interactive sensor for body movements to sense some tiny movement of the body.