13. Implications and applications

Research & Concept

Make Me Feel Good: Emotional Garments for Well-Being

Make Me Feel Good is a project exploring the potential of emotional garments—clothing that senses, interprets, and responds to the wearer’s physiological and emotional states. Using biometric sensors, these garments collect signals such as heart rate, sweat levels, and body temperature. Through programming a microcontroller, these signals are translated into emotional indicators such as stress, anxiety, fear, or agitation.

Once an emotional state is detected, the garment generates a calming or supportive response. This may include gentle warming, vibration feedback, pressure simulation, ambient light, sound cues, or subtle haptic patterns. The aim is to create a wearable system that offers immediate emotional relief, comfort, and reassurance—effectively acting as a personal, portable emotional companion.

This project examines how clothing can become an empathetic interface: a textile-based system capable not only of monitoring well-being but also actively supporting it. By blending soft materials, sensor technology, and affective interaction design, Make Me Feel Good proposes a new category of garments that prioritize emotional health in everyday life.

References & Inspiration

Affective computing. The MIT Media Lab has produced groundbreaking work on technologies that detect and interpret human emotions through physiological. Their research informs the sensing and interpretation strategies used to translate biometric inputs into emotional states.Affective Computing MIT.

Wearable fashion technologies also provide key precedents. CuteCircuit’s HugShirt—one of the earliest haptic garments—demonstrates the potential of textiles to communicate touch over distance, while their Mood Sweater uses LEDs to visualize emotional states through color.

Similarly, the emotional garments designed by Iga Węglińska explore how materials, sensors, and bodily signals can create expressive and introspective wearable experiences.

Iga Weglinska Emotional Clothing

Inclusive and adaptive fashion were also reviewed to understand accessibility and user-centered design approaches.SpecialKids.Company highlights the importance of functional adaptability in children’s wear.

Finally, Arduino-based interactive objects—such as I Love You Pillow**—illustrate how embedded electronics can support emotional comfort through haptics and interactive feedback.

These precedents demonstrate the wide potential for combining textiles, sensors, and affective interaction to support emotional well-being.

Why, What, Who, When, Where?

Who?

Anyone who finds themselves alone in a stressful, sad, or painful situation and needs comfort. This includes children or adults with disabilities who may have difficulty expressing their emotions—such as introverted individuals or people on the autism spectrum. It also includes women experiencing menopause who want support in understanding their physical and emotional changes, as well as older adults who live with chronic pain, illness, or limited mobility.

What?

This project is a step toward creating clothing designed to help people feel good—or at least feel better. It is not simply wearable technology, nor just clothing; it is clothing with intention, purpose, and emotional function.

When?

These garments can be worn anytime emotional support is needed: when traveling alone, preparing for an interview or presentation, managing anxiety, or going on a first date. They can help during important life moments, long-distance relationships, or any situation where reassurance and emotional stability are valuable.

Where?

These are everyday clothes that can be worn anywhere—at home, outdoors, at work, or while traveling.

Why?

The goal is to go beyond merely interpreting or visualizing emotional data. Instead of only reporting biometric information, the garments aim to offer a direct emotional response—providing comfort, relief, and support when the wearer needs it most.

How?

The system detects physiological signals using biometric sensors and processes them through a microcontroller to interpret emotional states. Based on these readings, the garment generates a supportive reaction—such as gentle electrical stimulation, magnetic pulses, warmth, pressure, or vibration—to help improve the wearer’s mood and enhance their sense of well-being.

Prototype

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