Coulton, Paul (2013) Empathy in the Internet of Things. In: Proceedings of a workshop at the 27th International British Computer Society HCI Conference: The Internet of Things : Interacting with Digital Media in Connected Environments :. UNSPECIFIED, GBR.
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Abstract
Empathy is often expressed as our ability to ‘stand in someone else’s shoes’ and is now viewed as an important component of what it means to be human. As an ever-increasing amount of our communications is online there is often less opportunity for conveying or feeling emotions such as empathy within current mechanisms. Whilst I would argue that empathy should be a concern for the design of all online systems, the Internet of Things offers a unique opportunity to explore the transmission and receiving of empathy, particularly if encompassed in aesthetically rich objects that use light, sound and haptics rather than text.