by Ma. Rosette B. San Buenaventura
28 July 2017 | Research Conversations. In this talk, Dr. Diego Maranan discussed his PhD research which draws from philosophy, somatic practices, neuroscience, and technology design, and culminated in the creation of a device for facilitating body awareness.
The device—called Haplós—is a novel, wearable, programmable, remotely controlled technology using vibrating motors that Diego developed as part of his research at CogNovo, a 4.1 million EU-funded project at Plymouth University, UK, that focused on interdisciplinary research on creativity and cognition.
Dr. Diego opened the talk by asking the question: Do you know yourself?, pertaining to our knowledge of our bodies as physical parts of ourselves as opposed to the typical response about mental or behavioral state. This underlined the concept of body awareness which deals with the connection between the way we organize our bodies and our disposition, the malleability of our concept of our bodies, and the understanding of our body as part of a space. Early research has shown that Haplós can increase body awareness by enhancing the user's perception of the body part that has been exposed to the. In addition Haplós has also been shown in a controlled experiment to decrease food cravings with statistical significanc. Because the sensations provided by the Haplós system have been described as highly unusual, pleasurable, and engaging, Haplós is theorized to interrupt the elaboration of intrusive thoughts associated with food cravings, as predicted by the Elaborated Intrusion Theory of desire.
Potential and speculative future applications of Haplós were discussed. For instance, there were inquiries (1) on the study's application for mental issues and other medicinal purposes, local fashion and production, and (2) for the study's continuation possibly at UP Open University in collaboration with other campus units in the country.
Article is based largely on the abstract of and with permission from Dr. Maranan.
