AUTHOR=Zhu Xin , Feng Tiantian , Culbertson Heather TITLE=Understanding the Effect of Speed on Human Emotion Perception in Mediated Social Touch Using Voice Coil Actuators JOURNAL=Frontiers in Computer Science VOLUME=4 YEAR=2022 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/computer-science/articles/10.3389/fcomp.2022.826637 DOI=10.3389/fcomp.2022.826637 ISSN=2624-9898 ABSTRACT=
Touch as a modality in social communication has been getting more attention with recent developments in wearable technology and an increase in awareness of how limited physical contact can lead to touch starvation and feelings of depression. Although several mediated touch methods have been developed for conveying emotional support, the transfer of emotion through mediated touch has not been widely studied. This work addresses this need by exploring emotional communication through a novel wearable haptic system. The system records physical touch patterns through an array of force sensors, processes the recordings using novel gesture-based algorithms to create actuator control signals, and generates mediated social touch through an array of voice coil actuators. We conducted a human subject study (