“Happyness Hat” by Lauren McCarthy, 2009
happiness hat from Lauren McCarthy on Vimeo.
Wearable devices can not only track emotions or body parameters, but they can also make a person do something. Happiness Hat is a great example where the hat is making a person smile, by inducing pain. It’s also quite a satire, using pain to make a person smile. This project makes me think of a different direction that wearable devices can take – a social companion. Wearable devices can accompany us in all our social meetings and modify our social behavior by giving us clues or by force!