Method and system for conveying an emotion

1. A method for conveying an emotion to a person being exposed to multimedia information, by way of tactile stimulation using a plurality of actuators arranged in a vicinity of the person's body, the method comprising

a) exposing the person to multimedia information including video and/or audio information and tactile stimulation information;

b) extracting the video and/or audio information from the multimedia information;

c) extracting the tactile stimulation information from the multimedia information, wherein said extracted tactile stimulation information comprises a pre-stored sequence of tactile stimulation patterns comprising signal shapes which are pre-selected from a library of signal shapes,

d) controlling the plurality of actuators in time and space according to the pre-stored sequence of tactile stimulation patterns, wherein the plurality of actuators are steered by electronics that are addressed over a bus structure, wherein the bus structure wirelessly communicates with a metadata player via a transceiver coupled to the bus structure;

wherein the tactile stimulation patterns are time synchronized with the audio/visual information to enable a predefined vibrotactile stimulation of one ore more body regions of the person'body at predefined points in time to convey emotions to the person in respond to the audio/visual information;

wherein the multimedia information comprises an original video stream and a corresponding metadata file generated by a metadata editor, the metadata file comprising information from the original video stream containing said video and/or audio information, said tactile stimulation information comprising a tactile data block with information about the tactile stimulation, and synchronization information for synchronizing the tactile stimulation information to the original video stream, and

wherein the tactile data block comprises the library of signal shapes and tactile stimulation patterns, each signal shape in the library of signal shapes defining a waveform signal for steering an individual actuator, and each pattern comprising a sequence of actuator settings defining which activators are activated at each point in time throughout the duration of the pattern;

wherein each pattern in the library is designed to control certain actuators to stimulate a bodily response associated with a specific emotion.

2. Method according to claim 1 , wherein the body region is a portion of the body selected from the group of shoulder, back, chest, torso, neck, spine, heart-area, lung-area, belly, arms.

3. Method according to claim 1 , wherein each signal shape in the pre-stored sequence of tactile stimulation patterns provides a drive signal for an actuator.

4. Method according to claim 1 , wherein at least one of the tactile stimulation patterns is configured for a first and a second of said plurality of actuators to be timed in a way that a “virtual actuator” occurs in between these actuators.

5. Method according to claim 1 further comprising the steps of registering the emotional state of the person using a sensor arrangement.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein each shape has an amplitude over time configured to induce an emotion.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein each pattern in the set of tactile stimulation patterns comprises a temporally indexed data array indexed by time, wherein each row defines for a specific starting time, which actuators are activated for the specific start time, which of said signal shapes are to be used to activate the actuators at the specific start time and an amplitude level setting for the selected signal shape.

8. The method according to claim 7 , wherein each row of the data array is structured in accordance with a plurality of data elements including: an actuator activation start time for at least one actuator, an actuator identifier for the at least one actuator, and a signal shape and a signal level to be applied to the at least one actuator.

9. A tactile stimulation system for conveying an emotion to a person being exposed to a media clip, the system comprising:

a metadata editor configured to generate a metadata file from said media clip by combining video information and/or audio information from the media clip with tactile stimulation information and synchronization information;

a plurality of actuators coupled to a tactile rendering device for controlling the actuators in time and space according to said tactile stimulation information comprising a pre-stored sequence of tactile stimulation patterns, wherein the plurality of actuators are steered by electronics that are addressed over a bus structure, and wherein the bus structure wirelessly communicates with a metadata player via a transceiver coupled to the bus structure;

a metadata player coupled to a video rendering device, the metadata player configured to:

extract tactile stimulation information from the generated metadata file, wherein the tactile stimulation information extracted from the generated metadata file comprises a tactile data block comprising at least a pre-selected subset of signal shapes and tactile stimulation patterns pre-selected from a library of signal shapes and tactile stimulation patterns each signal shape defining a signal for steering an individual actuator, and each pattern comprising a sequence of actuator settings defining which activators are activated at each point in time throughout the duration of the pattern, wherein each pattern in the library is designed to control certain actuators to stimulate a bodily response associated with a specific emotion;

an audio rendering device coupled to the metadata player configured to extract audio information from the metadata file,

a processor for processing the tactile stimulation information to control said plurality of actuators in time and space according to the pre-stored sequence of tactile stimulation patterns which comprise signal shapes that are pre-selected from a library of signal shapes,

wherein the tactile stimulation patterns are time synchronized with the audio/visual information to enable a predefined vibrotactile stimulation of one or more body regions of the person's body at predefined points in time to convey emotions to the person in response to the audio/visual information.

10. A tactile stimulation system according to claim 9 , wherein the plurality of actuators are provided in a textile garment.