Imbodylab

Magic Shoes

MAGICSHOES_logo

Magic Shoes 2016-2019 Magic Shoes was a research project funded by the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación and the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Grant PSI2016-79004-R), investigating the potential for improving sedentary lifestyles by altering the mental representation of the body using sensory feedback.

Magic Lining

Magic Lining

Magic Lining was a collaborative science-art project with artist Kristi Kuusk funded by the S+T+ARTS initiative of the European Commission, launched under the Horizon 2020. The project focused on the possibilities for altering the perception people have of their own body through the garment’s inside, and asked questions about the meaning of clothing. The work built on the insights from our project MAGICSHOES and proposed a garment that allows the user to feel as if their body would be made of a different material.

MagicOutFit

magicoutfit.com

Changing body perception through wearable technology and sensory feedback to promote emotional and physical health.  2020-2023 MAGICoutFIT is a research project funded by the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación and the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Grant PID2019-105579RB-I00). magicoutfit.com RESEARCHERS Ana Tajadura-JiménezMilagrosa Sánchez MartínMercedes Bordá MásFrancisco José CuadradoLize De CosterJudith Guadalupe Ley FloresAlfredo MirallesLuis MoralesSergio Navas LeónFrédéric BevilacquaNadia Bianchi-BerthouzeKristi KuuskAneesha SinghAleksander Väljamäe RESULTS Negative body perceptions are a serious problem in our society. They are increasing and affect many people in Europe and world-wide. They impact on emotional, social, and motor functioning, are present in many clinical conditions, and are among the most consistent predictors of many (un)healthy behaviors. Hence, to promote healthy behaviors, it is important to make people feel good about their bodies. Remarkably, neuroscientific breakthroughs have shown that people’s body perceptions can be changed via specially designed sensory feedback. This opens a unique opportunity to address negative mental body representations and impact positively on health. The MagicOutFit project follows a novel approach which consists of using sensory feedback to alter the way people perceive their body in order to drive positive changes in emotional and physical health in populations with body concerns. The project investigates the most effect sensory feedback to address individual  body concerns, such as concerns with body appearance (such as body size or shape) and of body capabilities (such as agility or strength). The potential benefits of the MagicOutFit technology will be evaluated in non-clinical and clinical populations with different body concerns, including professional dancers, physically inactive people and populations with eating disorders. MagicOutFit is an international and multidisciplinar project, which brings together researchers from 4 different European countries, from the areas of Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience, Human-Computer Interaction and real-life applications for health. In MagicOutFit we are developing wearable technology that integrates body-sensing and sensory feedback tailored to alter specific qualities of body perception, according to user needs, and suitable for use in real-life conditions (for instance, outdoors, home). We will iteratively redesign our technology to  match emergent needs and uses, following the concept of an outfit that helps to keep emotionally and physically FIT. We envision that MagicOutFit  will guide the design of new body-centred technologies to enhance the positivity towards one’s body that can revolutionize therapies and self-management of negative body perceptions. INSTITUTIONS FUNDING The MAGIC outFIT project is funded by the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/ (project PID2019-105579RB-I00). Magic Outfit Foto de Antonio Caballero Participant’s arm raise movement tested in an experiment Magic shoes, that change people’s body perceptions Body maps used to capture people’s body sensations when using soniband Spectogram of the “water” sound used in our experiments A prototype delivering haptic feedback to the back Soniband, sonifying body movement Ana Tajadura-Jiménez explaining the research project Sergio Navas presenting results from the project

The Hearing Body

The Hearing Body: How auditory perception influences body representation 2012-2015 The Hearing Body was a research project funded by the UK Economic and Society Research Council. The research conducted in this project was the first showing how sound can influence how people perceive their bodies.