Animo: Sharing Biosignals on a Smartwatch for Lightweight Social Connection

04/12/2019

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by   Fannie Liu, et al.

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Carnegie Mellon University

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Snap Inc.

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We present Animo, a smartwatch app that enables people to share and view each other's biosignals. We designed and engineered Animo to explore new ground for smartwatch-based biosignals social computing systems: identifying opportunities where these systems can support lightweight and mood-centric interactions. In our work we develop, explore, and evaluate several innovative features designed for dyadic communication of heart rate. We discuss the results of a two-week study (N=34), including new communication patterns participants engaged in, and outline the design landscape for communicating with biosignals on smartwatches.