ShareABeat: Augmenting Media Shared Through Social Platforms with Empathic Annotations

Abstract

An increasing share of our daily interactions with others is mediated through communication technologies. However, these often fail to capture the rich and nuanced communications that we use in collocated, face-to-face settings. Previous studies have found that incorporating bodily functions into communication increases intimacy and makes it more personal. We introduce ShareABeat, an application combining a smartwatch and smartphone to make sharing media content on social platforms more personal with the addition of empathic annotations. These annotations come in the shape of vibrations based on the elevated heart rate measured through the smartwatch of the person watching the media content. By measuring the user’s heart rate while watching shared media content, ShareABeat makes it possible to share ones personal ‘highlights’. An exploratory study has shown that people have measurable responses to videos shared on social media platforms with respect to their heartbeat patterns.