Type of Publication: Article in Collected Edition

Understanding User Acceptance of Electrical Muscle Stimulation in Human-Computer Interaction

Author(s):

Faltaous, Sarah; Williamson, Julie R.; Koelle, Marion; Pfeiffer, Max; Keppel, Jonas; Schneegass, Stefan

Title of Anthology:

Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Publisher:

Association for Computing Machinery

Location(s):

New York, NY, USA

Publication Date:

2024

ISBN:

9798400703300

Keywords:

Acceptability, Electrical Muscle Stimulation, Social Acceptability

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

doi:10.1145/3613904.3642585

Citation:

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Abstract

Electrical Muscle Stimulation (EMS) has unique capabilities that can manipulate users’ actions or perceptions, such as actuating user movement while walking, changing the perceived texture of food, and guiding movements for a user learning an instrument. These applications highlight the potential utility of EMS, but such benefits may be lost if users reject EMS. To investigate user acceptance of EMS, we conducted an online survey (N = 101). We compared eight scenarios, six from HCI research applications and two from the sports and health domain. To gain further insights, we conducted in-depth interviews with a subset of the survey respondents (N = 10). The results point to the challenges and potential of EMS regarding social and technological acceptance, showing that there is greater acceptance of applications that manipulate action than those that manipulate perception. The interviews revealed safety concerns and user expectations for the design and functionality of future EMS applications.