SoniWeight Shoes: Investigating Effects and Personalization of a Wearable Sound Device for Altering Body Perception and Behavior

TL;DR

This work investigates how a wearable sound device (SoniWeight Shoes) can alter body-weight perception through real-time footstep sound manipulation. Using a mixed design with 84 healthy adults across four groups, the study examines HF, LF, and control audio conditions while capturing subjective reports, gait, and physiological responses, and it analyzes how eating-disorder symptomatology, physical activity, body concerns, gender perceptions, and imagery modulate these effects. Key findings show robust overall effects of sound on weight perception, gait, and emotion, and reveal substantial moderating roles for the targeted individual factors, highlighting the need for personalized sensory feedback in applications such as rehabilitation and wellness. The work contributes a portable device capable of replicable, low-latency sound manipulation, a comprehensive dataset for future research, and design guidance toward tailoring sonification-based body perception interventions to individual profiles.

Abstract

Changes in body perception influence behavior and emotion and can be induced through multisensory feedback. Auditory feedback to one's actions can trigger such alterations; however, it is unclear which individual factors modulate these effects. We employ and evaluate SoniWeight Shoes, a wearable device based on literature for altering one's weight perception through manipulated footstep sounds. In a healthy population sample across a spectrum of individuals (n=84) with varying degrees of eating disorder symptomatology, physical activity levels, body concerns, and mental imagery capacities, we explore the effects of three sound conditions (low-frequency, high-frequency and control) on extensive body perception measures (demographic, behavioral, physiological, psychological, and subjective). Analyses revealed an impact of individual differences in each of these dimensions. Besides replicating previous findings, we reveal and highlight the role of individual differences in body perception, offering avenues for personalized sonification strategies. Datasets, technical refinements, and novel body map quantification tools are provided.

Figures (9)

• Figure 1: Detail of the microphones in the prototype; laboratory setup and participant wearing prototype and mocap suit; Body Visualizer tool employed to measure visualized body size/weight; an example of a body map filled by participants.
• Figure 2: Experiment procedure
• Figure 3: Questionnaire results in overall population
• Figure 4: Effects showing the main differential effects of sound, EDEQ and IPAQ groups and effects of sound combined to differences in EDEQ and IPAQ on the various areas of the Body Maps
• Figure 5: Main results showing effects of sound condition on body visualization, gait biomechanics and physiology in the overall population. Correlations between hip and thorax sway and participants' reported feelings of masculinity induced by sound are also displayed.