Fuzzy Feelings: Arousal’s Interpretive Noise and the Case for Acoustic-Based Haptics

de Lacerda Pataca, Caluã; Patterson, Stephanie; L Peiris, Roshan; Huenerfauth, Matt

Fuzzy Feelings: Arousal’s Interpretive Noise and the Case for Acoustic-Based Haptics

de Lacerda Pataca, Caluã and Patterson, Stephanie and L Peiris, Roshan and Huenerfauth, Matt (2026) Fuzzy Feelings: Arousal’s Interpretive Noise and the Case for Acoustic-Based Haptics. In: CHI 2026: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 13th-17th April 2026, Barcelona Spain.

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1145/3772318.3793421

Abstract

Captions rarely convey emotional nuances in speech, leaving Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (dhh) viewers without access to tonal and affective information. We present a two-part mixed-methods study on how haptic feedback can communicate vocal emotion without adding visual load. In Part 1, we replicated an arousal-driven captioning approach using speech-emotion-recognition to modulate typographic weight and vibration intensity. Participants showed divergent mental models and often mapped “more vibration” to loudness rather than emotional arousal, underscoring the construct’s conceptual fuzziness. In Part 2, we evaluated five acoustic-to-haptic mappings that bypass affective inference and translate pitch, rhythm, and waveform cues into vibration patterns. No single pattern dominated, but participants associated options such as pulse or sawtooth with high-arousal emotions, and pitch-normalized signals with calmer states. We derive design guidelines emphasizing contrastive, acoustically grounded mappings and user control for integrating emotional haptics into short-form, captioned media.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Identification Number:	10.1145/3772318.3793421
Dates:	Date Event 1 April 2026 Accepted 13 April 2026 Published Online
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Accessibility, Emotion / Affective Computing, Individuals with Disabilities & Assistive Technologies
Subjects:	CAH11 - computing > CAH11-01 - computing > CAH11-01-01 - computer science
Divisions:	Architecture, Built Environment, Computing and Engineering > Computer Science
Depositing User:	Gemma Tonks
Date Deposited:	01 May 2026 13:19
Last Modified:	01 May 2026 13:19
URI:	https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/id/eprint/17021