Social Touch Technology: A Survey of Haptic Technology for Social Touch

et al. 2019

In this chapter, we make a case for the significance of touch for communication and suggest that developments in sensory digital technologies are bringing touch to the fore in ways that move digital communication beyond 'ways of seeing' to include new 'ways of feeling'. We argue that this shift requires us to take new measure of digitally mediated touch, or 'digital touch', as a communicational resource, what it is and can be, how it is designed and imagined, and its communicative potentials and limitations. We situate digital touch communication in relation to a technological awakening to a broader social revaluing of people's sensorial experience. We introduce and reflect on the socially orientated stance to digital touch we take in this book, and the InTouch project more generally. The chapter provides an overview of the book which also serves to introduce the key themes that it explores, that is the research and technological terrain of digital touch, social norms of touch, presence and connection, sociotechnical imaginaries of digital touch, and the ethics of touch. Finally, we introduce six InTouch case studies which examine digital touch across different contexts, perspectives and participants. We draw illustrative examples from these (alongside extensive engagement with the research literature) in order to enliven and consolidate the book's exploration of the sociality of digital touch communication across different contexts.

Section: Digital Touchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Introduction: Digital Touch Communication

et al. 2019

“…The need for more insights into the effects of temperature-based stimuli and the role of other modalities in conjunction with the 'touch' itself is essential (Willemse et al 2015), as well as the type of feedback that is most successful for conveying different emotions in different contexts e.g. warmth to reduce stress, haptic for social interaction (Huisman 2017). This is particularly important since attribution seems to form a large part of the mediated touch experience -where the haptic feedback need not necessarily feel 'real' but is attributed to the sender -another person or social actor -and thus takes on social significance (Huisman 2017).…”

Section: Human-human Digitally Mediated Touch Communicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…warmth to reduce stress, haptic for social interaction (Huisman 2017). This is particularly important since attribution seems to form a large part of the mediated touch experience -where the haptic feedback need not necessarily feel 'real' but is attributed to the sender -another person or social actor -and thus takes on social significance (Huisman 2017).…”

Section: Human-human Digitally Mediated Touch Communicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We can see that various characteristics of touch form the basis of empirical research studies, such as: physical warmth (Willemse et al 2015); notions of connectedness (Wang et al 2012); different textures and wearables (Ebe and Umemuro 2015); developing meaning and ludic experience through conveying messages in gaming (Canat et al 2016); or conveying different emotional feelings (Huisman 2017).…”

Section: Human-human Digitally Mediated Touch Communicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Terrain of Digital Touch Communication

et al. 2019

This chapter provides a descriptive map of digitally mediated touch communication. Whilst acknowledging our everyday interaction with touch screens, our focus is on emergent and semi-speculative touch technologies that want us to be able to touch and feel objects in new ways: from tangibles, wearables, haptics for virtual reality, through to the tactile internet of skin. It gives an overview of current state-of-the-art digital touch technologies, that enable new forms of touch communication in various contexts, such as work, leisure, learning, personal and social relationships and health and well-being. The chapter assess the scope, extent and findings of user studies to date, and identifies emerging issues around the social aspects of digital touch communication, that might involve human-object, humanhuman, human to robot or robot to human touch. In so doing, this map documents the resources for touch, the touch interactions supported and the kinds of touch communication practices that are being designed and identifies the social potentials and constraints of touch that are taken up by the designers of 'digital touch'.

“…Social norms of touch and body accessibility also pervade research studies on touch, with most studies performed on the hands (45%) and fingers (34%) (Gallace and Spence 2014: 335). Through a combination of social, physiological, technological reasons these body touch norms are echoed in the design of digital touch on the body, which primarily focus on the finger(s), hand, wrist, forearm, arm, with occasional forays to the torso and back (Huisman 2017).…”

Section: Touching the Bodymentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Norms of Touch

et al. 2019

This chapter discusses social norms with attention to their significance for researching and designing digital touch communication in a global world, notably gendered and cultural touch norms. It explores how social and cultural norms shape the ways that people (and machines) touch. Touch norms are shaped, regulated and enforced through social, economic, familial and legal mechanisms, they organise our experiences and expectations. Understanding of the touch norms that people, including digital touch researchers and designers, bring to their interactions with others provides a route into understanding the sociality that shapes digital touch. We discuss the significance of these given the expectations of the user, their touch repertoires, and the social cultural role that norms play in the take up and use of mediated digital touch communication devices and systems and environments. The chapter concludes that reflexive engagement with touch norms can provide insights and inspiration for thinking about, researching and designing digital touch communication, and help to address how cultural and gendered norms of touch might be engaged with, to constrain and reproduce or open-up the meaning potentials of digital touch.