Conference | TEI 2026

At the ACM International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI 2026), Dr. Mirna Zordan presents two Work-in-Progress papers co-authored with Future Spaces Vision Lab students Minghong Zhang and Jiakun Pei for Robots that Make You Feel: Understanding Perceptions of Robotic Biofeedback for Emotion Regulation, and Xi Zhang for From Self-Awareness to Peer Support: A Tangible Device for Physiological Stress Sharing. Both works investigate how physiological computing can be used as a tangible resource to support human health and well-being.

The first project studies people’s perceptions of an embodied robotic agent that displays interoceptive signals, with the goal of informing future systems for physiological training.

The second project explores design options for sharing physiological signals between individuals as a form of nonverbal communication when seeking emotional support from another person.

Together, these two WiP contributions extend the lab’s research on stress, interoception, and biofeedback into the TEI community, highlighting how tangible and embodied interfaces can make internal bodily states visible, discussable, and actionable in everyday contexts. Click Robots that Make You Feel and From Self-Awareness to Peer Support to see details of the programs.