Validation of virtual hug effect under presentation of body contact pressure and HyperMirror image of a hug
Ryo Hattori, Fumitake FUJII, Osamu Morikawa · 2021
We initially proposed a virtual hug as an imaginary hug experience of two users over distance with a visual presentation of their synthesized hugging image. Since the image was synthesized to provide a mirror image of a hug, we call the visual presentation system “a HyperMirror.” We continued development of a virtual hug system and recently fabricated a jacket that presents body contact pressure caused by a hug in synchronous to the hugging action shown in the HyperMirror. Four pneumatic artificial muscles (PAMs) were sewed on the jacket to emulate body contact caused by a hug. The present paper reports the results of two experimental studies to clarify how a presentation of virtual hug image affects the sensitivity of touch pressure recognition. We first quantified the PAM pressure with which a person who wears the jacket feels comfortable, for 10 subjects enrolled in the present study. We then proceeded to the second experiment to verify a hypothesis that presentation of a hug image in HyperMirror increases the sensitivity of touch pressure recognition of a person and accordingly makes just a noticeable pressure difference small. It was shown that the result justified our thought.