Keep in touch Conference Paper uri icon

abstract

  • This paper investigates whether and how digitally mediated social touch (remote touch) may influence the sense of connectedness toward a speaker and the emotional experience of what is being communicated. We employ an 'augmented' storytelling methodology where we manipulate the modality of an 'emotive' channel that accompanies the speech, and the contextual expectation of the listener. Comparing a remote upper-arm touch against a similarly timed flashing light, we explore the importance of the touch modality in affect conveyance. Our second manipulation involves two cover stories where the listener is told that the touch or flashing light is triggered either by the storyteller expressively squeezing a touch input device while speaking, or by measured 'high points' in the mental state of the storyteller. Our results show that the story accompanied by communicative touch resulted in a significant increase in the sense of connectedness with the storyteller over the speech-only condition, and a trend toward greater affective conveyance. Copyright 2012 ACM.

name of conference

  • Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

published proceedings

  • Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

author list (cited authors)

  • Wang, R., Quek, F., Tatar, D., Teh, K. S., & Cheok, A.

citation count

  • 45

complete list of authors

  • Wang, Rongrong||Quek, Francis||Tatar, Deborah||Teh, Keng Soon||Cheok, Adrian

publication date

  • May 2012