Posture Shifts in Conversation: An Exploratory Study with Textile Sensors

Abstract

Posture shifts involving movement of half or more of the body are one of the most conspicuous non-verbal events in conversation. Despite this we know less about what these movements signal about the interaction than we do about smaller scale movements such as nods and gestures. This paper reports an exploratory study of posture shifts in seated conversation. Using data from video analysis and bespoke pressure sensors in clothing, we are able to dis- tinguish different types of posture shifts and detect them in speakers and listeners. The results show that large scale posture shifts are performed by both speaker and listener, ap- pear to be distinct from smaller movements associated with preparing to speak and that the posture shifts associated with speech offset are less clearly defined. We discuss the potential of using pressure sensors to investigate these salient conversational states.