In this study we investigated facial electromyographic (EMG) responses to vocal affect expressions. We also measured emotion‐related action tendencies by requesting the subjects to indicate their tendency to approach or withdraw from the person uttering the stimulus word. In addition, emotional contagion (EC) was measured with a questionnaire‐based scale. The results showed that hearing the expression of anger increased EMG activity in the subjects' brow region more than hearing contentment. In contrast, the expression of contentment activated the periocular muscle region more than anger. The expressions of anger elicited behavioral withdrawal responses, whereas the neutral expressions and contentment evoked approach responses. Subjects scoring low and high on EC exhibited different patterns of EMG responses. The results support the view that negative and positive affects are contagious from hearing human vocal affect expressions.

New methods for unobtrusive monitoring of computer users' emotion psychophysiology are very much needed in human-computer interaction research. The present aim was to study heart rate changes during emotionally provocative stimulation. Six-second long auditory, visual, and audiovisual emotionally negative, neutral, and positive stimuli were presented to 24 participants. Heart rate responses were measured with a regular office chair embedded with electromechanical film (the EMFi chair) and with traditional earlobe photoplethysmography (PPG). Ratings of the stimuli were also collected. The results showed that the two heart rate measurements were significantly correlated, r = 0.99. In line with other studies the results showed that, in general, heart rate decelerated in response to emotional stimulation and it decelerated the most in response to negative stimuli as compared with responses to positive and neutral stimuli. Especially, emotional stimulation caused significant changes in heart rate at the 6th second from the stimulus onset. We suggest that the EMFi chair could be used in human-computer interaction for unobtrusive measurement of the user's emotional reactions.

Three novel interaction methods were designed for reading six-dot Braille characters from the touchscreen of a mobile device. A prototype device with a piezoelectric actuator embedded under the touchscreen was used to create tactile feedback. The three interaction methods, scan, sweep, and rhythm, enabled users to read Braille characters one at a time either by exploring the characters dot by dot or by sensing a rhythmic pattern presented on the screen. The methods were tested with five blind Braille readers as a proof of concept. The results of the first experiment showed that all three methods can be used to convey information as the participants could accurately (91-97 percent) recognize individual characters. In the second experiment the presentation rate of the most efficient and preferred method, the rhythm, was varied. A mean recognition accuracy of 70 percent was found when the speed of presenting a single character was nearly doubled from the first experiment. The results showed that temporal tactile feedback and Braille coding can be used to transmit single-character information while further studies are still needed to evaluate the presentation of serial information, i.e., multiple Braille characters.