Role: Lead Research Assistant (First Author)
Impact:
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Pilot study funded by the UCL Innovation & Enterprise Fund (£30,000)
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Manuscript under revision for publication in 2024
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A follow-up study was conducted by another researcher on the back of this foundational research
When we see a live performance of a show like West Side Story, why is it so much better than watching the film or even a recording of the show at home? Psychologists say it's the live audience. Even if you don't know the person sitting next to you or anyone else in the theatre, your body is reacting by synchronizing your physiological processes together. Your emotions, brain waves, and heart beats among other things are at one.
Psychologically, fixating on the same thing even with just one other person increases feelings of connectedness. So when you're watching a show with 1,000 other people you feel connected to those 1,000 people around you.
But with the COVID-19 pandemic decimating the live performance industry, how can we enjoy the live performance experience again? Is it possible to simulate this feeling we get as audience members digitally? The answer, as it turns out, is yes!
Working alongside artists, producers, computer scientists, and researchers, I created a novel product and research method that visualized the remote audience members' collective heart rates to visually simulate the physiological process of heart rate synchronization that happens in in-person performances. In turn, this replicated feelings of social connectedness between people who weren't even on the same continent.
Understanding the Problem
It's Bigger than Covid-19
Social isolation was already a huge global problem before the COVID-19 pandemic. In England, there are 1.4 million chronically lonely older people. Social isolation and loneliness increases mortality rates, the likelihood of developing mental health issues and coronary heart disease, and the use of public services like the GP and A&E.
This has quantifiable impacts. Because social isolation can cause or worsen almost any health condition, it is estimated to cost the NHS billions of pounds a year. There is a lack of effective digital alternatives for therapy as well as preventative solutions, which this technology aims to fill the gap with.
The Technology
Collective Heartbeat Technology
Collective Heartbeat is a novel approach for measuring, streaming and sharing home audiences’ physiological synchrony during live streaming performances. We used users’ smartphones to measure their blood volume pulse (BVP) patterns, without requiring any additional sensors (e.g. wearable PPG sensors) at home. Collective Heartbeat visualizes the synchrony of heartbeats across remote audiences as they watch livestreaming performances at home. The Collective Heartbeat framework is designed to work with any existing live-streaming services (e.g. Facebook Live) to make them interactive virtual theatre platforms.
The Data Visualizations
I designed a simple visualization that would not detract from the performer but also easily and attractively convey the general synchrony of a collective audience’s heart rate. The table summarizes the visualization of heartbeat synchrony. An important parameter is the average heart rate that changes the radius of the outer circle; hence, users can visibly see the changes of the audience’s heart rate throughout the performance. We used the variance as the second key parameter to better represent heart rate synchrony.
The Experiment
I recruited 120 participants for 2 experiments. The participants were randomly placed into one of 3 groups: the control group, an experimental group with an explanation to what the visualization is, and an experimental group with no knowledge of what the visualization is. They were then sent a link to an online survey platform where they were given instructions and watched videos to establish a baseline heart rate using their smartphones.
Outcomes
After performing statistical analysis on the survey data, I found significant results supporting the fact that people felt more connected while watching the performance with the visualization. Essentially, this means that because people knew they were observing the collective heart rates of people who were all watching the same performance miles away, they still felt a social connection much like they would if they were at a physical live performance.
In addition to these significant results, another researcher has completed a follow-up study. Off of the back of this, I am currently conducting additional statistical analysis and rewriting a manuscript for submission to journals in 2024.
Learnings
This project was extremely rewarding and taught me not only how to be an inquisitive researcher, but the following important skills.
• Collaboration. Working in a team of 6 people with completely different skills,
backgrounds, and working remotely, allowed me to understand the power of
communication.
• Thinking outside of the box. Our original product involved collecting data and
presenting this visualization live at a festival in London. But, of course, the pandemic
forced us to quickly pivot our plans and convert them into a completely digital
environment.
• Learning quickly. Because of the cross functional nature of the project, I jumped from
being a researcher to a producer to a programmer throughout the course of one day. I
learned how to code in JavaScript in a couple of days and quickly began to learn how
connecting the visualization to the servers would work as well as handling
livestreaming software. Most importantly, I learned how to lead a team of 6 to
successfully complete a project from start to finish.