Design and evaluation of a wearable remote social touch device
Rongrong Wang, Francis K. H. Quek, James Keng Soon Teh, Adrian David Cheok, Sep Riang Lai · 2010
Psychological and sociological studies have established the essential role that touch plays in interpersonal communication. However this channel is largely ignored in current telecommunication technologies. We design and implement a remote touch armband with an electric motor actuator. This is paired with a touch input device in the form of a force-sensor-embedded smart phone case. When the smart phone is squeezed, the paired armband will be activated to simulate a squeeze on the user's upper arm. A usability study is conducted with 22 participants to evaluate the device in terms of perceptibility. The results show that users can easily perceive touch at different force levels.