Manifesto for Digital Social Touch in Crisis

This qualitative exploratory research paper presents a Manifesto for Digital Social Touch in Crisis - a provocative call to action to designers, developers and researchers to rethink and reimagine social touch through a deeper engagement with the social and sensory aspects of touch. This call is motivated by concerns that social touch is in a crisis signaled by a decline in social touch over the past 2 decades, the problematics of inappropriate social touch, and the well documented impact of a lack of social touch on communication, relationships, and well-being and health. These concerns shape how social touch enters the digital realm and raise questions for how and when the complex space of social touch is mediated by technologies, as well the societal implications. The paper situates the manifesto in the key challenges facing haptic designers and developers identified through a series of interdisciplinary collaborative workshops with participants from computer science, design, engineering, HCI and social science from both within industry and academia, and the research literature on haptics. The features and purpose of the manifesto form are described, along with our rationale for its use, and the method of the manifesto development. The starting points, opportunities and challenges, dominant themes and tensions that shaped the manifesto statements are then elaborated on. The paper shows the potential of the manifesto form to bridge between HCI, computer science and engineers, and social scientists on the topic of social touch

Wear it or fear it:exploration of drivers & barriers in smartwatch acceptance by senior citizens

The number of people with an age above 65 is increasing, and many live longer. Most seniors prefer to stay at their own home. Within the area of ambient assisted living (AAL) technology solutions have been aimed to assist seniors in the challenges that can arise when wanting to live independently. However, technology acceptance has been rather low, also due to stigmatization when using assistive systems. New technologies, such as the smartwatch, which is unobtrusive and not recognized as an assistive device by outsiders, have the potential to improve the autonomy and independence of seniors. This research aims to investigate the potential barriers and drivers of smartwatch use by seniors, by means of conducting a diary study and interviews. Results showed that the acceptance of the smartwatch depended mainly on the usability, interest and added value of the smartwatch. Additionally, the findings indicate that changes to the smartwatch need to be made in order to address the barriers that are found, and to ultimately enhance acceptance

Is seeing believing?:The effect of morphological congruent visual feedback on mediated touch experience

Mediated social touch (MST) provides physical contact over a distance for geographically separated individuals. Despite advances in actuator technologies, it remains difficult to recreate the feel and sensation of natural human touch. Combining touch with morphologically congruent visual feedback may overcome limitations related to the low fidelity of current-day tactile displays. Being able to both feel and see the touch act being initiated on an input device could enhance the perceived realism of the touches. In two studies, we test the effects of such visual feedback on self-reported naturalness of touch, social presence, and emotional experiences