The Perception - Artificial Human Sensors: Science and Applications - page 64

ings. Through the emotions we can express ourselves, both consciously and un-
consciously, our thought and feelings that are reflected into the physical world.
Emotion is a complex process, which is based on different psychological function
levels. The term feeling designates to the subjective experience of the emotion,
e.g., joy, desire, love, security, sadness, fear, etc. It has sometimes been described
that feelings have a lust and dislike characteristic and can provide an additional
value to our experiences. Human feeling enables properties such as comfort and
wellness, and should truly be measured in a population. A sincere involvement of
human emotions in a population will probably increase communication activities
resulting in an active sense of emotions, e.g., body language. This may result in an
improved quality of life.
In daily life, the emotional effects can never be underestimated as a promoting
competition effect. As performance quality, technical specifications and the price
of products are often similar, nowadays, the emotional qualities of products be-
come more and more important. The measurement of human emotions enables
the designer to produce devices with a highly effective interface between humans
and machines (artificial system) (HMI).
The quantification of emotions are of interest to enable a sort of “emotional
standard” that can be a common platform. However, before one can measure
this state, the emotions have to be properly identified and characterised. When
it comes to defining emotions, there are a number of constructive ideas and
theories. Researchers from different scientific fields are interested in human emo-
tional behaviours. Different disciplines of scientists, such as physiologists, neu-
rologist, biologist, biochemist, etc., have speculated on the evolution, structure
and character of emotions. Psychologists, anthropologists and sociologists have
proliferation theories about emotions and their significance to the individual and
society. Philosophers are deeply concerned about the specific and detailed under-
standing of the views on emotions. Creative artists have proposed explanations for
emotions, their meaning and impact, and ways to portray them in sculptures and
paintings. Other disciplines also have their views on emotions, including political
sciences, economics, performing arts, etc.
The very beautiful, satisfactory and emotional phrase,
I feel good
can be considered, according to Damasio, (1999), as a background feeling that
arises from the corresponding background emotion. That is, background emotions
are not any of the so-called universal emotions of fear, anger, sadness, disgust, sur-
prise and happiness, neither the so-called secondary nor social emotions. Back-
ground emotions are, according to Damasio, (1994), sometimes of low-grade,
although sometimes quite intense emotions that are not in the forefront of the
mind. Feelings originating from these emotions are considered to be of impor-
tance, since they flavour a person's live by the way they define the mental state
and colour.