Affective and behavioral responses to robot-initiated social touch: Towards understanding the opportunities and limitations of physical contact in human-robot interaction

Social touch forms an important aspect of the human non-verbal communication repertoire, but is often overlooked in human–robot interaction. In this study, we investigated whether robot-initiated touches can induce physiological, emotional, and behavioral responses similar to those reported for human touches. Thirty-nine participants were...

A warm touch of affect?

One of the research areas within affective Computer Mediated Communication currently under investigation is that of mediated social touch. A social touch is a complex composition of different physical parameters that can be simulated by haptic technologies. In this article we argue why we think it makes sense to incorporate warmth - and in...

Design of a wearable research tool for warm mediated social touches

Social touches are essential in interpersonal communication, for instance to show affect. Despite this importance, mediated interpersonal communication oftentimes lacks the possibility to touch. A human touch is a complex composition of several physical qualities and parameters, but different haptic technologies allow us to isolate such...