Throwing a Smile: Using Smile Icons to Design Social Interfaces

A social interface is defined as that which allows for the visualization of potential social relationships between a human and an object, or between humans. In this study, we focus on facial expression, because it is an important source of non-verbal information. We aim to apply this study in designing a social interface. More specifically, we are concerned with the functions of smile. We have designed a “smile icon” as a way of carrying the visual information that the sender is smiling , and developed an experimental system. We have conducted an experiment of conversation between two persons, using TalkWithSmile. The results of the experiment show that the use of smile icons leads participants in a conversation to form the impression that the conversation is more active than otherwise. In the near future, we will expect more experimental trials and investigate the boundary between the condition in which the smile icon facilitates a conversation and the condition in which it does not.