Abstract
The paper presents an ongoing research project that aims to help individuals with mild psychological disorders, like depression, to reduce the use of medication and escape a possible addiction to drugs by transforming their immediate or broader living space into a sensponsive environment. It is an innovative, multidisciplinary, non-invasive approach through the domains of architecture, computer science, psychology and endocrinology. Initially, the paper presents the connections between space and human behavior, and specifically, the ways in which the spatial qualities of the surrounding environment affect the human senses and consequently the hormonal changes and the production of the corresponding emotions and actions. As a next step, the paper outlines the creation of sensponsive environments that are programmed to sense human discomfort by monitoring changes in facial expression and body movement and respond to them accordingly by transforming their spatial elements in order to make people feel better. The proposed sensponsive spaces are equipped with biomedical monitoring systems, smart materials and sensor–actuator assemblies with programmed re-actions (haptic, olfactory, chromatic and so on) that help people refine their feeling of the surrounding space, guiding its smooth transition to a comfortable—for the body and the mind-place. The paper concludes with the next step of this research initiative, the sensponsive suit, a personalized wearable assembly enhanced with technology to positively affect the psychological health of the wearer.
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Acknowledgments
The technical specifications for the materialization of the proposed sensponsive system have been structured with the invaluable help of Konstantinos-Alketas Oungrinis, Asst. Professor, and Dimitris Mairopoulos, student, at the TUC Department of Architecture.
Conflict of interest
This supplement was not sponsored by outside commercial interests. It was funded entirely by ECONA, Via dei Marsi, 78, 00185 Roma, Italy.
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Liapi, M., Linaraki, D. & Voradaki, G. Sensponsive architecture as a tool to stimulate the senses and alleviate the psychological disorders of an individual. Cogn Process 13 (Suppl 1), 233–237 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-012-0454-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-012-0454-z