dufte
“dufte” aims to support people in selected everyday situations to achieve emotional balance.
TIME
nov. – feb. 2022/23
COURSE
Invention Design
TEAM MEMBERS
Selina Dick, Marina Geltenbort, Elisa Moder, Lena van Maris
SUPERVISION
Prof. David Oswald
TOOLS
Figma, After Effects
MY TASKS
Research, Concept of Interaction, Design & Prototyping
PROCESS:
EXPERT INTERVIEW
We conducted interviews with an olfactory researcher Prof. Dr. med Thomas Hummel, an aromatherapist Silke Schmidt and a psychiatrist Dr. Simon Riedesser.
FINDINGS:
In the course of the research, we learned that scent is linked to emotions in the brain. However, the approach of aromatherapy does not offer us enough basis to support mentally ill patients, because there are not enough studies in this area yet and the reaction to a scent, such as lavender is still individual. Thomas Hummel said among other things: There is a lack of research to say that there is a “feel-good” scent worldwide.
Thus, we have decided to specialize in people in general and not to focus on a specific disease.
BASIS OF OUR PROJECT
The basis of our project is classical conditioning, which links two stimuli to a response. The most famous example of conditioning is Ivan Petrovich Pavlov’s experiment in which a dog produces saliva by linking food to a bell even when the bell rings.
We chose scents as the neutral stimulus because the sense of smell has the most direct connection to the brain and memories with scents are particularly emotional and vivid. This formed the basis for our Invention Design project “dufte”.
We based our concept on this, but were unable to conduct sufficient user tests within the limited framework of one semester.
neutral stimulus
unconditional stimulus
unconditional reaction
CONCEPT
The basis of our project is classical conditioning, which combines two stimuli with one response. We chose scents as the neutral stimulus because the sense of smell has the most direct connection to the brain and memories with scents are particularly emotional and vivid. This formed the basis for our Invention Design project “dufte“.
The measured values collected via our deployed technology are evaluated by an artificial intelligence in order to capture the current emotions of our user. The goal here is to help achieve more emotional balance in certain situations that the person finds disturbing. For example, this can help people with exam anxiety by releasing a personalized scent that is associated with relaxation. After the conditioning phase, the scent can help induce relaxation in nervous situations such as an exam. This principle could also be applied to many other situations.
conditional stimulus
conditional response
KIT
WRISTBAND:
A wristband with sensors measures the electrodermal activity via which the emotional arousal level of a person can be objectively determined.
CHAIN:
A chain with integrated scent diffuser, in which the selected scent ampoule can be placed. This contains a micro to measure the emotional valence, i.e. whether an emotion is perceived as positive or negative, as well as the dominance, via the voice.
FRAGRANCES:
In addition, there are five personalized fragrances, which you can order in advance.
APP
To support the users, there is an app with the same name. The app provides a summary in different graphs to obtain precise values about emotions and behavior when scents are released. The product is individually adjusted to the user via onboarding. There is also an information page to learn more about conditioning, scents and emotions, and artificial intelligence.
GRAPH
The graph shows the level of emotions. This graph is always related to the goal you choose at the beginning of onboarding. This emotion and the opposite emotion are shown here.
The orange dot shows the time of the scent release. So you can see how you react to the scent and see if you react at all or if you don’t have to condition.
In the second graph, the X axis shows the valence (negative-positive) and the Y axis shows the arousal level (arousal-quiet). This graph represents all emotions over the course of the day. With the slider you can change the time and see how the emotions change over the course of the day.
The dominance is also shown here in each case by the background of the emotion (here light orange) changing. Light orange means low dominance and dark orange means high dominance.
As an example, one may be anxious the morning of a presentation, nervous 10 before and then the scent is released and afterwards one is relaxed. This sequence of emotions is made visible in this graphic.
In the end, a concept, a kit and an app were created, which is visualized in this video.
With the help of this video we were able to make our concept easily accessible and understandable.
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