IEEE Trans Haptics. 2024 Jul-Sep;17(3):372-383. doi: 10.1109/TOH.2023.3327394. Epub 2024 Sep 19.
The importance of interpersonal touch for social well-being is widely recognized, and haptic technology offers a promising avenue for augmenting these interactions. We presented smart bracelets that use vibrotactile feedback to augment social interactions, such as handshakes, by transmitting vibrations between two people. This work conducts mechanical and perceptual experiments to investigate key factors affecting the delivery of interpersonal vibrotactile feedback via bracelets. Our results show that low-frequency vibrations elicited through tangential actuation are efficiently transmitted from the wrist to the hand, with amplitude varying based on distance, frequency, and actuation direction. We also found that vibrations transmitted to different locations on the hand can be felt by a second person, with perceptual intensity correlated with oscillation magnitude at the touched location. Additionally, we demonstrate how wrist-interfaced devices can elicit spatial vibration patterns throughout the hand surface, which can be manipulated by the frequency and direction of actuation at the wrist. Our experiments provide important insights into the human factors associated with interpersonal vibrotactile feedback and have significant implications for the design of technologies that promote social well-being.
人际触摸对于社交幸福感的重要性已得到广泛认可，而触觉技术为增强这些交互提供了有前途的途径。我们展示了使用振动反馈来增强社交互动的智能手环，例如通过在两个人之间传输振动来握手。这项工作进行了机械和感知实验，以研究通过手镯传递人际振动反馈的关键因素。我们的结果表明，通过切向致动产生的低频振动可以有效地从手腕传递到手部，其幅度随距离、频率和致动方向而变化。我们还发现，传输到手部不同位置的振动可以被第二个人感觉到，感知强度与被触摸位置的振动幅度相关。此外，我们展示了腕部接口设备如何在整个手部表面产生空间振动模式，并且可以通过手腕处的致动频率和方向进行操作。我们的实验提供了与人际振动反馈相关的人类因素的重要见解，并对促进社交幸福感的技术设计具有重要意义。
