Design of a Massage-Inspired Haptic Device for Interpersonal Connection in Long-Distance Communication

Abstract

The use of tactile senses in mediated communication has generated considerable research interest in past decades. Since massage is a common practice in Asian cultures, we propose to introduce massage-based interactions in mediated communication between people in a close relationship. We designed a device for distant interactive massage to be used during online conversation and we assessed its effect on interpersonal connection with eight pairs of Chinese participants in romantic relationships. All pairs were asked to engage in a conversation, either through a video call or through a massage-assisted video call. The findings showed that the use of the massage device significantly increased the perceived emotional and physical connection between the users. The results also showed a significant increase in the engagement in the massage activity, e.g., total massage time and average force per finger, from positive conversation to negative conversation, demonstrating an evidence of the interplay between audio-visual and haptic communication. Post hoc interviews showed the potential of the massage device for long-distance communication in romantic relationships as well as in parents-children relationships.

Interpersonal Affective Touch in a Virtual World: Feeling the Social Presence of Others to Overcome Loneliness

“…Participants could either send (through the manipulation of a shoulder-like device) or receive (through vibrotactile stimulation) massages. The inclusion of touch increased the perceived emotional and physical connection within the couples (Haritaipan et al, 2018). Despite all the potential benefits, the implementation of interpersonal tactile devices in VR also raises some risks and ethical issues that should be carefully considered.…”

“…Participants could either send (through the manipulation of a shoulder-like device) or receive (through vibrotactile stimulation) massages. The inclusion of touch increased the perceived emotional and physical connection within the couples ( Haritaipan et al, 2018 ).…”

Skin‐Integrated Vibrohaptic Interfaces for Virtual and Augmented Reality

“…[ 12 ] Efforts to understand the vibratory characteristics of sensorimotor functions of the skin and to develop materials and skin‐like systems for vibratory inputs across all regions of the body will lead to profound advances in technologies for VR/AR, with applications that range from virtual social engagements, immersive gaming/entertainment experiences and interactive learning, to remote protocols for medical diagnosis, treatment, training, and rehabilitation, to interactive human–machine interfaces. [ 13–25 ]…”

A Review of Virtual Touch Interaction Systems

“…The human operators are aimed to accord the sense of touch in such teleoperation scenarios, in order to make them feel that they are manipulating the objects and environment like they interact with the real-world objects with their own hands. In a few cases, the patients who lost their touch sensation in any disease or accident injury this study has suggested for replacing the sense of touch [11] [12] [13]. Many people lose the sense of touch if an upper-limb amputee is lost because of loss of a hand [14].…”