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... In our study, we believe that tactile feedback worked as an immediate interruption method [48] and successfully interrupted our participants in the target selection. Change et al. [11] also supported our findings by showing that their participants easily became confused when researchers exposed them to tactile feedback in virtual environments without explanation. Similar to previous results, we think our pulsive feedback confused our participants, resulting in a longer time for them to understand the situation. ...
... First, social touch is a need [6], the absence of social touch among loved ones may contribute to the development of stress and impact health [7,8], and it may jeopardize the development of social relationships [4]. Enabling touch (interaction) in remote communication can potentially help in reducing negative moods [9], it can encourage more interaction between people, and improve social connection [10,11]. It has also the potential to increase social awareness and impact emotional wellbeing positively, for example communicating discrete emotions such as love, or valence emotions such as positively arouse emotions [12,13]. ...
Nowadays, living away from loved ones is a common practice due to various reasons such as work, study, or certain health-related concerns (e.g., infection diseases). Such practice aggregates certain negative emotions such as depression due to the loss of physical, mental, and emotional awareness about loved ones. Because of the importance of social touch for one’s wellbeing, this paper reports the research focusing on remote social touch (RST), as a way to stimulate the sense of touch remotely to regain some of the lost awareness. The research identified various dimensions of RST and the process of communicating social touch remotely through a product. This is done through an extensive literature survey, online diary keeping, and interviews. The paper also presents the early proposed RST framework that consists of three elements (actors, product, and communication) and their dimensions, that explain the process of how RST communications can be successfully achieved through a product.
... The sensation of vibrotactile stimuli has been studied for a long time [1], and extensive research has clarified the type of sensations that can be designed using different vibration actuators [2], [3]. Recently vibrotactile perceptions under multimodality have garnered research interest [4], [5]. ...
Vibrations emitted by smartphones have become a part of our daily lives. The vibrations can add various meanings to the information people obtain from the screen. Hence, it is worth understanding the perceptual transformation of vibration with ordinary devices to evaluate the possibility of enriched vibrotactile communication via smartphones. This study assessed the reproducibility of vibrotactile sensations via smartphone in the in-the-wild environment. To realize improved haptic design to communicate with smartphone users smoothly, we also focused on the moderation effects of the in-the-wild environments on the vibrotactile sensations: the physical specifications of mobile devices, the manner of device operation by users, and the personal traits of the users about the desire for touch. We conducted a Web-based in-the-wild experiment instead of a laboratory experiment to reproduce an environment as close to the daily lives of users as possible. Through a series of analyses, we revealed that users perceive the weight of vibration stimuli to be higher in sensation magnitude than intensity under identical conditions of vibration stimuli. We also showed that it is desirable to consider the moderation effects of the in-the-wild environments for realizing better tactile system design to maximize the impact of vibrotactile stimuli.
... Chang et al. [26] developed a handheld vibrotactile device that when used as a sleeve on the back of a mobile phone was able to convert the hand pressure into vibrational intensity to enable real-time interpersonal communication over a tactile channel. The device developed is bi-directional, that is, both the users were able to send as well as receive signals simultaneously. ...
PurposeDigital media has brought a revolution, making the world a global village. For people who are visually impaired and people with visual and hearing impairment, navigating through the digital world can be as precarious as moving through the real world. To enable them to connect with the digital world, we propose a solution, Haptic Encoded Language Framework (HELF), that uses haptic technology to enable them to write digital text using swiping gestures and understand the text through vibrations.Method
We developed an Android application to present the concept of HELF and evaluate its performance. We tested the application on 13 users (five visually impaired and eight sighted individuals).ResultsThe preliminary exploratory analysis of the proposed framework using the Android application developed reveals encouraging results. Overall, the reading accuracy has been found to be approximately 91%, and the average CPM is found to be 25.7.Conclusion
The volunteering users of the HELF Android application found it useful as a means of using the digital media and recommended its usage as an assistive technology for the visually challenged. The results of their performance of using the application motivate further research and development in the proposed work to make HELF more usable by people who are visually impaired and people with visual and hearing impairment.
... Stress and anxiety make it difficult for people to exercise self-control and concentrate on their communication partners [3], and this problem is heightened for individuals with ASD due to their limited ability to exercise self-control. Psychological studies have suggested that tactile sensations increase feelings of comfort during communication [4][5][6][7] and that the physical presence of the conversation partner's body significantly influences the speaker's perception of the outside world [8,9]. Interactions wherein people touch one another activate the tactile channel in the brain and reduces stress--a known effect of interpersonal touch [4]. ...
Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are often not comfortable during mobile-phone conversations with unfamiliar people. “ Hugvie ” is a pillow with a human-like shape that has been designed to provide users with the tactile sensation of hugging another person during phone conversations to promote feelings of comfort and trust in the speaker toward their conversation partners. Our primary aim was to examine whether physical contact by hugging a Hugvie could reduce the stress of speaking with an unfamiliar person on the phone in individuals with ASD. We enrolled 24 individuals and requested them to carry out phone conversations either using only a mobile phone or using a mobile phone along with the Hugvie . All participants in both groups completed questionnaires designed to evaluate their self-confidence while talking on the phone, and also provided salivary cortisol samples four times each day. Our analysis revealed that the medium of communication was a significant factor, indicating that individuals with ASD who spoke with an unfamiliar person on the phone while hugging a Hugvie had stronger self-confidence and lower stress levels than those who did not use Hugvie . Hence, we recommend that huggable devices be used as adjunctive tools to support individuals with ASD during telephonic conversations with unfamiliar people.
... Elvitigala et al. [33] conducted similar study to investigate the perception of tactile cues applied on the wrist and fingers. Both studies revealed that a vibrotactile interface is an efficient way to transfer non-visual information, especially in a discrete and private way [25] [79], which are important issues for people with VI. ...
Les graphiques sont utilisés comme un outil puissant pour présenter des informations. Alors que les informations graphiques deviennent de plus en plus omniprésentes dans le travail comme dans la vie quotidienne, il est important pour les personnes ayant une déficience visuelle (VI) de pouvoir les explorer et les comprendre. Cependant, l'accès aux cartes, schémas, graphiques mathématiques, dessins, etc. est toujours un grand défi pour les personnes déficientes visuelles. Généralement, le processus d'adaptation des graphiques tactiles repose sur des méthodes maîtrisées par les documentaristes tactiles et donc difficilement réalisables en grande série. De plus, les professionnels ne savent toujours pas très bien comment les personnes déficientes visuelles organisent leurs mains lors de l'exploration de graphiques tactiles. Cependant, ces informations peuvent être utiles aux professionnels pour améliorer l'accessibilité des graphiques. Pour le premier problème, avec les développements récents des technologies informatiques, de nombreux systèmes interactifs ont été proposés. Parmi eux, certains sont des systèmes hybrides qui combinent des composants physiques et numériques à la fois tandis que d'autres sont entièrement numériques, dont les informations graphiques sont présentées directement sur des appareils numériques. Par rapport aux graphiques tactiles, bien que les graphiques numériques puissent offrir plus de flexibilité (facile à modifier), leur exploration est encore très limitée en raison du manque d'indices tactiles. Dans cette thèse, nous avons étudié la possibilité d'améliorer l'expérience d'exploration tactile des graphiques numériques en concevant une interface vibrotactile sur la main appelée VibHand, qui permet aux personnes déficientes visuelles d'explorer plus facilement les graphiques numériques sur des tablettes. Pour ce faire, nous avons étendu l'idée d'utiliser la vibration de la tablette et étudié l'utilisation d'un affichage vibrotactile sur le dos de la main pour transmettre des informations de direction et de progression. Pour le deuxième problème, des recherches antérieures ont confirmé que la conception de graphiques tactiles doit généralement prendre en compte non seulement des éléments graphiques, mais également les utilisateurs ou les tâches cibles. Cependant, il manque une méthode efficace pour évaluer le comportement d'exploration tactile des utilisateurs ainsi que leurs capacités perceptives et cognitives tout en explorant les graphiques tactiles à partir d'un niveau plus raffiné. Par conséquent, bien que nous ayons déjà observé certains comportements exploratoires organisés spéciaux, ils n'ont jamais été systématiquement discutés et évalués. Pour résoudre ce problème, nous avons mené des recherches correspondantes axées sur la compréhension de l'exploration tactile des personnes déficientes visuelles et avons proposé un marqueur comportemental (une nouvelle observation comportementale) appelé "fixation tactile". Une fixation tactile se produit lorsqu'un doigt est immobile dans une fenêtre spatiale et temporelle lors de l'exploration tactile. L'identification des fixations tactiles peut fournir des informations précieuses sur les zones saillantes des graphiques et les stratégies d'exploration des personnes déficientes visuelles. Outre les deux principaux axes mentionnés ci-dessus, dans cette thèse, nous avons également exploré la possibilité d'un apprentissage graphique collaboratif à distance qui avait une demande explosive pendant la pandémie mondiale. Le système proposé, qui s'appelle TactileLink, était basé sur un outil d'exploration graphique interactif et co-conçu avec plusieurs professionnels pour les personnes déficientes visuelles. Dans l'ensemble, cette thèse apporte des connaissances à la fois théoriques et applicatives à l'exploration tactile non visuelle des graphiques par les personnes déficientes visuelles.
... Using water as a material affected the dialogue between participants: it could either be nurturing or threatening. ComTouch [10] offered audio-tactile interaction that served as nonverbal cues that might otherwise be lost during a remote conversation. This use of touch, which is underused in CSTs, shows its potential for enriching interpersonal communication. ...
... Previous studies have shown that being touched by another person reduces stress [1]- [3], decreases anxiety [4], and relieves pain [5]. Over recent years, mediated interpersonal touch has received attention in the domain of Human-Computer Interaction, where various haptic technologies have been developed to allow physical contact over distance [6]- [8]. This so called mediated social touch has been suggested to augment social interaction in circumstances not allowing direct skin-to-skin contact, for instance, while staying in an isolation ward in the hospital or while being in a long-distance relationship (e.g., [9]). ...
Social touch is essential to human development and communication. Mediated social touch is suggested as a solution for circumstances where distance prevents skin-to-skin contact. However, past research aimed at demonstrating efficacy of mediated touch in reducing stress and promoting helping have produced mixed findings. These inconsistent findings could possibly be due to insufficient control of contextual factors combined with unnatural interaction scenarios. For example, touch occurs less frequently among strangers and is often accompanied with nonverbal visual cues. We investigated how visual presentation of touch, and interpersonal relationship to the sender influence perception, affective experiences, and autonomic responses the touch evoke. Fifty couples of mixed gender were recruited. A mediated touch was repeatedly applied by either the male partner or male confederate to female participants. The latter witnessed through a webcam as the sender caressed a rubber hand or touchpad to send the touch. Following our hypotheses, touch sent by one's partner was perceived softer and more comforting than stranger touch. The partner's touch also resulted in weaker skin conductance responses, particularly when sent by touching a touchpad. In sum, how a mediated touch is experienced depends both on who is touching, and on how the touch is visually represented.
... To support remote touch-based communication, the concept of mediated touch has been explored. Mediated touch is a kind of touch that is delivered via haptic feedback technology, including tactile and kinesthetic devices [13] on areas such as the arm [14][15][16][17][18][19], lips [20][21][22], hand [23][24][25], and torso [26][27][28]. Mediated touch brings several benefits in human communication. ...
... This is not meant to replicate existing touch gestures, but rather to create a new vocabulary for social interaction. Chang's ComTouch is a device that augments remote voice communication with touch [25]. They found that subjects employed three distinct types of touch (i.e., emphasis, turn-taking, and mimicry), demonstrating that a tactile channel can enhance voice communication. ...
This article explores the affective impact of remote touch when used in conjunction with video telecon. Committed couples were recruited to engage in semi-structured discussions after they watched a video clip that contained emotionally charged moments. They used paired touch input and output devices to send upper-arm squeezes to each other in real-time. Users were not told how to use the devices and were free to define the purpose of their use. We examined how remote touch was used and its impact on skin conductance and affective response. We observed 65 different touch intents, which were classified into broader categories. We employed a series of analyses within a framework of behavioral and experiential timescales. Our findings revealed that remote touches created a change in the overall psychological affective experience and skin conductance response. Only remote touches that were judged to be affective elicited significant changes in EDA measurements. Our study demonstrates the affective power of remote touch in video telecommunication, and that off-the-shelf wearable EDA sensing devices can detect such affective impacts. Our findings pave the way for new species of technologies with real-time feedback support for a range of communicative and special needs such as isolation, stress, and anxiety.
... V ARIOUS haptic communication systems have been designed and developed by researchers over the years in order to integrate the touch channel in digital communication. These systems aim to enhance physical intimacy duing remote interaction between people by stimulating the haptic sensations of hugging [3], [7], [23], [33], [49], handshaking [1], [31], [36], hand holding [2], [10], [34], kissing [16], [47], [55] and other forms of interpersonal touch [37], [43], [52]. ...
Various communication systems have been developed to integrate the haptic channel in digital communication. Future directions of such haptic technologies are moving towards realistic virtual reality applications and human-robot social interaction. With the digitisation of touch, robots equipped with touch sensors and actuators can communicate with humans on a more emotional and intimate level, such as sharing a hug or kiss just like humans do. This paper presents the design guideline, implementation and evaluations of a novel haptic kissing machine for smart phones - the Kissenger machine. The key novelties and contributions of the paper are: (i) A novel haptic kissing device for mobile phones, which uses dynamic perpendicular force stimulation to transmit realistic sensations of kissing in order to enhance intimacy and emotional connection of digital communication; (ii) Extensive evaluations of the Kissenger machine, including a lab experiment that compares mediated kissing with Kissenger to real kissing, a unique haptic Turing test that involves the first academic study of human-machine kiss, and a field study of the effects of Kissenger on long distance relationships.
