Towards Somaesthetic Smarthome Designs

Have you ever experienced a mirror that not only "sees" how you see yourself, but tells you how others perceive you? May such a smartmirror help not only adapt/improve oneself externally (look) but also internally (mood, emotions)? What are the expectations, fears (privacy)? The acceptance of such a smart thing requires approaches that go beyond technology-driven designs. In this paper, we report on the construction of an affective emotion-sensitive smartmirror as a smart piece of furniture for smarthomes and explorative studies with that system which address somaesthetics and aims to help inhabitants in self-reflection. The paper presents and discusses the prototype implementation and the results of a study in which the ideas, concerns, and experiences for/with the self-reflection capabilities of the affective smartmirror were explored by participants using the prototype as a technology probe.