Connected Through Mediated Social Touch: “Better Than a Like on Facebook.” A Longitudinal Explorative Field Study Among Geographically Separated Romantic Couples

In recent years, there has been a significant increase in research on mediated communication via social touch. Previous studies indicated that mediated social touch (MST) can induce similar positive outcomes to interpersonal touch. However, studies investigating the user experience of MST technology predominantly involve brief experiments that...

Social Touch in Human–Robot Interaction: Robot-Initiated Touches can Induce Positive Responses without Extensive Prior Bonding

Social touch interactions can, depending on the type and strength of the dyadic social relationship, elicit a plethora of physiological, emotional, and behavioral responses; both beneficial and disadvantageous. With the intention to expand the communicative capabilities of humanoid social robots, we investigated whether robot-initiated touches...

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...

Simulating Affective Touch: Using a Vibrotactile Array to Generate Pleasant Stroking Sensations

Gentle stroking touches are rated most pleasant when applied at a velocity of between 1–10 cm/s. Such touches are considered highly relevant in social interactions. Here, we investigate whether stroking sensations generated by a vibrotactile array can produce similar pleasantness responses, with the ultimate goal of using this type of haptic...

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...

Warmth in affective mediated interaction: Exploring the effects of physical warmth on interpersonal warmth

Recent research suggests that physical warmth activates perceptions of metaphorical interpersonal warmth and closeness, and increases pro-social behavior. These effects are grounded in our earliest intimate experiences: being held by our loving caregivers. These findings provide reasons to incorporate warmth in devices for distant affective...

Social touch in human–computer interaction

Touch is our primary non-verbal communication channel for conveying intimate emotions and as such essential for our physical and emotional wellbeing. In our digital age, human social interaction is often mediated. However, even though there is increasing evidence that mediated touch affords affective communication, current communication systems ...

Effects of mediated social touch on affective experiences and trust

This study investigated whether communication via mediated hand pressure during a remotely shared experience (watching an amusing video) can (1) enhance recovery from sadness, (2) enhance the affective quality of the experience, and (3) increase trust towards the communication partner. Thereto participants first watched a sad movie clip to...

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...

Reach out and touch somebody's virtual hand: Affectively connected through mediated touch

We present the design of a haptic computer accessory that adds the experience of touch to online conversations. It enables dyads to exchange the physical experience of holding hands regardless of distance and location. Text, speech and video communication systems support the transmission of several nonverbal affective aspects of communication...