Fig. 1: Phenomenology of Contact, Diagram, Fig. 2 & 3: Abstraction of BPM data into an organic blob visual, Fig. 4: Physical Prototyping, Fig. 5: Biosensing matrix conducted basis 17 user studies, Fig. 6: Technical Infrastructure
Video: Sentio App Interface, Sentio hardware integration into daily objects, in this case, a phone cover, Custom half-tone animation depicting five distinctive emotions
Sentio: Reclaiming Contact in an Age of Disembodied Communication
In an era of digital immediacy, communication is efficient yet often disembodied. Drawing on linguistics, anthropology, and human–computer interaction, this paper presents Sentio, a system that uses biosensing (BPM, SpO₂, HRV, Respiration) as an expressive medium to communicate an individual’s affective state. By mapping physiological signals into interpretable visual and temporal cues, Sentio enables a level of vulnerability, emotional grounding, and interpersonal attunement not available through text-based interaction alone. Its contribution to HCI lies in demonstrating how biometric information can be intentionally shaped into communicative expressions that support empathic connection, and in outlining design considerations for translating bodily data into meaningful, ethically situated interaction cues.
Acknowledgements: This work was completed as part of the Master in Industrial Design program during Spring of 2025 and was supported by the RISD Industrial Design Department's Health Fund.