Smart Scarf: An IOT-based Solution for Emotion Recognition

This paper presents the design rationale of a color-changing scarf depending on the emotional state it detects. The goal of the design is to associate people to show up their emotional state especially those who have difficulties in expressing their feelings, such as elderly people, children, people with special needs, and people who have to wear a face mask, which covers their facial expression, as it is common during the COVID-19 pandemic period. Wearing a smart emotional scarf provides a context of the individual's emotional state that might help surrounding people in dealing with them. Our design uses a heart rate sensor and a skin sensor to detect and recognize emotional information. The scarf will change its color based on the emotional state it detects (neutral, angry, happy, and sad). An interface allows the provision of emotional data and displays emotional statistics and daily history. We went through a user- centered design process adopting wearable technology guidelines. A proposed prototype of the smart scarf is presented called Scarfy. A user evaluation is conducted showing that wearing the scarf with changing colors based on emotional status is a good solution to express feelings with comfort and wearing it might enhance social engagement.