This pilot study investigated how music influences physiological responses by monitoring heart rate, electrodermal activity (EDA), and skin temperature in 30 adult participants listening to two contrasting musical excerpts from the Concertos para Bebés repertoire. Using wearable EmotiBit™ sensors and a novel five-stage analysis pipeline, the researchers identified 489 significant physiological deviations from baseline and 82 moments where multiple listeners responded simultaneously. These shared responses were strongly associated with specific musical characteristics, particularly spectral brightness, timbral features, and rhythmic intensity. Electrodermal measures, especially skin conductance response frequency, proved the most sensitive indicators of musical engagement, while cardiac responses were linked to brighter, higher-pitched, and rhythmically accented passages. The findings demonstrate the potential of wearable sensing technologies to detect shared audience reactions to music in real time and provide a foundation for future research exploring how infant physiological responses can be integrated into interactive musical performances.

This is the ACM IMX paper authored by Francesco Mariotti, Anna Bindi, Ibrahim El Shemy, Katrien De Moor, Patricia de Torres Coll, Robert Oldfield, Karolina Wylezek, and Pablo Cesar. It serves as a comprehensive overview of the foundational experiment carried out during the 2025 Internet Festival in Pisa. By anchoring the research in this real-world application, the paper provides a detailed look at the data and findings gathered directly from the festival’s sessions.

This is the ACM IMX paper authored by Patricia de Torres, Tamás Bukits, Joseba Ruiz, Iker Burguera, Mikel Zorrilla, and Sergio Cabrero. It serves as an in-depth exploration of how former inmates and other demographics subjectively perceive personal items. By anchoring the research in the documentation gathered on 1 December 2025 at LICEU, the paper provides a detailed look at these unique subjective perceptions.