Colours, as music, affect our mood and are associated with emotions. For example, we say: “I feel blue” when we are sad. Certain aspects of colour emotions association are universal and probably have biological origins. However, other aspects of colour emotion association depend on culture. For example, while green symbolizes happiness for Muslims, this colour corresponds to envy in English culture and can have negative connotations. Moreover, people of the same culture relate colours to mood and emotions differently. These differences are due to specific experience of individuals with colours and can arise from traumatic experience with a certain colour. Therefore, the colours that may help to calm down one person might yield strong negative emotions in another individual.
The aim of this project, in collaboration with researchers from Optometry & Vision Science, is to introduce colours into digital apps for treating anxiety and depression. This involves developing different tools for colour selection (colour pickers), developing suitable platform independent interfaces, and investigating how colour display and perception is affected by device parameters and environmental conditions.
Undergraduate
Good self-learning abilities
Interested in new technologies
Creativity
Proactive and able to work to deadlines (ethics deadlines, user study)
Students must own a suitable mobile device
Computer Science (303S.499, Lab)