User Emotion Sensing in Search Process based on Chromatic Sensation

Abstract

The sensing of user emotion in the Web space is typically performed using user logs, e.g., pages visiting by users and/or the texts input by users. These techniques are essentially based on text to identify the target in which the users showed interest. However, it is difficult to estimate the emotion only by text. On the other hand, it is known that the color sensation has direct connection to human's affective sensation and thus is suitable for emotion sensing. Based on this, we propose a model for sensing user emotion on the basis of the psychological principle, namely, color sensation. The model extracts the present feeling of the user by using the colors browsed or selected by the user. The model has five elements: an algorithm for extracting feature colors that potentially represent user emotion, an emotion database for describing the relationships between emotions and colors, an algorithm for extracting the user emotion from the extracted feature color, images symbolizing information for making it easier for users to find relevant information that match their present feeling, and an interface for browsing information from sense-related viewpoints. As a first step in implementing this model, it was tested using 50 people searching for an application using an intuitive interface. The results revealed that the colors they selected were potentially related to their feelings especially for users with ambiguous information needs.