Interpersonal Affective Touch in a Virtual World: Feeling the Social Presence of Others to Overcome Loneliness

Humans are by nature social beings tuned to communicate and interact from the very beginning of their lives. The sense of touch represents the most direct and intimate channel of communication and a powerful means of connection between the self and the others. In our digital age, the development and diffusion of internet-based technologies and virtual environments offer new opportunities of communication overcoming physical distance. It however, happens that social interactions are often mediated, and the tactile aspects of communication are overlooked, thus diminishing the feeling of social presence, which may contribute to an increased sense of social disconnection and loneliness. The current manuscript aims to review the extant literature about the socio-affective dimension of touch and current advancements in interactive virtual environments in order to provide a new perspective on multisensory virtual communication. Specifically, we suggest that interpersonal affective touch might critically impact virtual social exchanges, promoting a sense of co-presence and social connection between individuals, possibly overcoming feelings of sensory loneliness. This topic of investigation will be of crucial relevance from a theoretical perspective aiming to understand how we integrate multisensory signals in processing and making sense of interpersonal exchanges, this is important in both typical and atypical populations. Moreover, it will pave the way to promising applications by exploring the possibility to use technical innovations to communicate more interactively in the case of people who suffer from social isolation and disconnection from others.

Combining haptics and inertial motion capture to enhance remote control of a dual-arm robot

High dexterity is required in tasks in which there is contact between objects, such as surface conditioning (wiping, polishing, scuffing, sanding, etc.), specially when the location of the objects involved is unknown or highly inaccurate because they are moving, like a car body in automotive industry lines. These applications require the human adaptability and the robot accuracy. However, sharing the same workspace is not possible in most cases due to safety issues. Hence, a multi-modal teleoperation system combining haptics and an inertial motion capture system is introduced in this work. The human operator gets the sense of touch thanks to haptic feedback, whereas using the motion capture device allows more naturalistic movements. Visual feedback assistance is also introduced to enhance immersion. A Baxter dual-arm robot is used to offer more flexibility and manoeuvrability, allowing to perform two independent operations simultaneously. Several tests have been carried out to assess the proposed system. As it is shown by the experimental results, the task duration is reduced and the overall performance improves thanks to the proposed teleoperation method.

Vocabulary to speak about touch: analysis of the discourse of electric guitar players

This work presents a multidisciplinary approach to vibrotactile perception, applying linguistic methods to musical acoustics. We are interested more particularly in the sense of touch as a part of the multisensory experience of playing a musical instrument. Six words and their inflections are chosen from the literature in musical acoustics dealing with vibrotactile perception: “comfort”, “dynamics”, “response”, “feeling”, “touch” and “vibration”. Their use by musicians in playing situation is analyzed. The data used in this article comes from transcripts of two previous studies, conducted in French with professional guitarists natively speaking French. The linguistic analysis of the corpus is based on different features which help to categorize the utterances according to each observed parameter, namely the relationship with the sense of touch, the object that is qualified by the words under study and the implication in discourse of the interviewee. The results permit to understand the use of the six categories of words in relationship with the sense of touch, and provide perspectives to use some of these words to focus the discourse on the sense of touch in future studies.

Listen With Your Wrists

Most of us have five senses that our brains use to create a model of the world us. We see, hear, smell, taste, and touch our way around. If one of your senses is not working properly, your brain fills in the gaps by paying more attention to the other senses. However, your other senses cannot always fill in the gaps. If your ears are not working, your eyes alone may not be able to tell your brain that an out-of-control car is screeching toward you! But what if we could help the brain fill in the gaps by purposefully sending the missing information through another sense? What if you could “hear” where a sound is through your sense of touch? This article will explain how people were able to do just that, using wristbands that converted sound into vibration.

Concrete Abstract: Exploring Tactility in Abstract Animations from Early Avant-garde Films to Contemporary Artworks

After witnessing social chaos and the collapse of values at the beginning of the twentieth century, avant-garde artists insert new thought patterns and progressive aesthetic into the traditional perception of art. Being enthralled by the new film medium, former painters like Viking Eggeling, Walther Ruttman and Hans Richter start to experiment with light in two-dimensional film formats, they animate lines, stripes, basic shapes, play with the foreground and the background, and, most important of all, they construct a temporality within the visual order of the screen. Viking Eggeling’s Symphonie Diagonale (1921-24), Walther Ruttman’s Opus I (1921) and Hans Richter’s Rhythmus 21 (1921) show such temporality built in, which is caught by the idea of music as their titles suggest. These short abstract animation films attempt to discover the artistic possibilities of the new developing medium, film. Like the pioneer avant-garde abstract filmmakers, today’s artists still seek to stimulate a new perception for a possible embodiment that will activate the sense of touch in the audience. Tactility, enhanced by the material, opens up a new network of spatio-temporal relationships in the viewer's consciousness and subjecthood. This essay aims to bring a historical perspective to the abstract moving images of which the tactile or haptic experience is a defining characteristic. Through a selection of abstract animations, the materiality of the film image and the screening site will be elaborated upon according to the haptic features that are corporally embodied by the viewers. In the light of historical abstract animation, the aim is to dwell upon the dynamics of a continuous tendency to capture tactile instances to help bring forth the spatial resonances as well as visualize and reedify the rhythmic passing of time.

Szorstki i chropowaty dotyk – o dramaturgii zmysłów

Today, the concept of dramaturgy refers primarily to the space of theater or, more broadly, to performative arts. But as the concept of drama has passed into the scientific discourse of sociology, anthropology or literary studies, so is it with dramaturgy. The understanding that appears here refers to its meaning as a special tension on the level of sensually experienced and perceived artistic events. The subject of interest here is the dramatic aesthetics of experience in the field of performing and visual arts. The aesthetic categories related to the senses are often of a physical origin and amorphous in nature. The roughness and harshness of the title in their origin are physical categories that can be experienced primarily through the sense of touch. In this intertwining of senses, we are talking about their dramaturgy, because they cannot usually be separated from each other and various works appeal to touch and other senses at the same time. The process of creating a work and its reception is an action, process, meeting, the playwright of which is both the creator / creator and the recipient. The considerations concern changes in the perception of the senses, from the glorification of the sense of sight to the ennoblement of the “lower” senses, the place and function of the classical and interactive museum and haptic art, as well as the polysensory and immersive reception designed in performance and theater.

The Floatation Stimulation Platform: An investigation into the feasibility of delivering audio and audio-visual stimuli into the floatation tank

<p>The floatation tank experience is unique. It involves floating on a body of water dense in Epsom salt, inside of a purpose-built tank. The buoyancy from the salt density means there is little sensation of gravity, and the water temperature is the same as the skin temperature so there is minimal sense of touch. There is no light, no sound, and no one else. This research considers the feasibility of developing technology designed to stimulate the senses in the floatation environment – conceptualised as the floatation stimulation platform (FSP). The identified target market for the FSP is the commercial floatation centre. Three phases of investigation were conducted to assess feasibility of the FSP. Phase One involved surveying 10 existing floatation centres and assessing their use of stimuli in the floatation environment in a commercial context. Phase Two involved surveying 37 participants connected to a commercial floatation centre's online network. Participants were asked a range of questions about their perceptions and experiences of floatation, stimuli within the floatation tank, and activities they participate in. Phase Three involved analysing a commercial offering of audio stimuli designed for a specific model of floatation tank. The findings of all three phases of investigation suggest the FSP is a feasible concept. A major finding from Phase One was that all surveyed commercial floatation centres currently use stimuli in their floatation tanks, while in Phase Two it was found that all participants surveyed were open to the concept of experiencing stimuli in the floatation tank. Phase Three of the investigation found that stimuli designed for the floatation tank is most valuable to floatation centres if it can increase customer retention. From the investigation findings, recommendations were developed for appropriate business models and developmental pathways for FSP technology. It is suggested that FSP technology operate as different components for different senses. It is also recommended that a content library for existing floatation tank and FSP technology be developed and made available on subscription-based access. The feasibility of creating personalised content for FSP technology is also explored.</p>

The Floatation Stimulation Platform: An investigation into the feasibility of delivering audio and audio-visual stimuli into the floatation tank

<p>The floatation tank experience is unique. It involves floating on a body of water dense in Epsom salt, inside of a purpose-built tank. The buoyancy from the salt density means there is little sensation of gravity, and the water temperature is the same as the skin temperature so there is minimal sense of touch. There is no light, no sound, and no one else. This research considers the feasibility of developing technology designed to stimulate the senses in the floatation environment – conceptualised as the floatation stimulation platform (FSP). The identified target market for the FSP is the commercial floatation centre. Three phases of investigation were conducted to assess feasibility of the FSP. Phase One involved surveying 10 existing floatation centres and assessing their use of stimuli in the floatation environment in a commercial context. Phase Two involved surveying 37 participants connected to a commercial floatation centre's online network. Participants were asked a range of questions about their perceptions and experiences of floatation, stimuli within the floatation tank, and activities they participate in. Phase Three involved analysing a commercial offering of audio stimuli designed for a specific model of floatation tank. The findings of all three phases of investigation suggest the FSP is a feasible concept. A major finding from Phase One was that all surveyed commercial floatation centres currently use stimuli in their floatation tanks, while in Phase Two it was found that all participants surveyed were open to the concept of experiencing stimuli in the floatation tank. Phase Three of the investigation found that stimuli designed for the floatation tank is most valuable to floatation centres if it can increase customer retention. From the investigation findings, recommendations were developed for appropriate business models and developmental pathways for FSP technology. It is suggested that FSP technology operate as different components for different senses. It is also recommended that a content library for existing floatation tank and FSP technology be developed and made available on subscription-based access. The feasibility of creating personalised content for FSP technology is also explored.</p>

Cambridge and London in Wordsworth's 'Prelude'

<p>This thesis examines two sections of William Wordsworth’s autobiographical poem, The Prelude: Book 3, “Residence at Cambridge,” and Book 7, “Residence in London.” Books 3 and 7 are often read as interruptions in the poem’s narrative of psychological and artistic maturation. “Cambridge” and “London” are often read as impediments to the development of Wordsworth’s imagination, a development which is traditionally associated with transcendental epiphany in nature. This thesis offers a re-reading of the Cambridge and London books, emphasizing their affirmative role in the organic structure of the poem, and suggesting that these spaces allow Wordsworth to reflect positively on his imaginative development. Chapter 1 considers the issues involved in a literature review. Chapter 2 looks at the representation of Wordsworth’s adjustment to Cambridge. Though the poet considers his imagination to have been dormant during his first year at university, Book 3 depicts a phase in which the mind is opening toward outside influences. In the sheltered groves and level fenland of Cambridge, Wordsworth finds an environment both protective and sufficiently strange to stimulate his sense of inner power. Chapter 3 is concerned with Wordsworth’s changing attitudes toward London. The poet was composing Book 7 over a period of time during which he made multiple trips to the city. While it is ostensibly the record of his very first residence in London, Book 7 has a palimpsestic quality, layering together different encounters with the city and exhibiting an increasingly affirmative vision of urban life. In particular, this chapter traces the influence of Charles Lamb on Wordsworth’s thinking about London. Chapter 4 considers the centrality of the body and the sense of touch in Wordsworth’s response to London. Touch in Book 7 is both a source of anxiety and the vehicle for Wordsworth’s understanding of the city, its influence on him and its significance for a poetics of belonging.</p>

Cambridge and London in Wordsworth's 'Prelude'

<p>This thesis examines two sections of William Wordsworth’s autobiographical poem, The Prelude: Book 3, “Residence at Cambridge,” and Book 7, “Residence in London.” Books 3 and 7 are often read as interruptions in the poem’s narrative of psychological and artistic maturation. “Cambridge” and “London” are often read as impediments to the development of Wordsworth’s imagination, a development which is traditionally associated with transcendental epiphany in nature. This thesis offers a re-reading of the Cambridge and London books, emphasizing their affirmative role in the organic structure of the poem, and suggesting that these spaces allow Wordsworth to reflect positively on his imaginative development. Chapter 1 considers the issues involved in a literature review. Chapter 2 looks at the representation of Wordsworth’s adjustment to Cambridge. Though the poet considers his imagination to have been dormant during his first year at university, Book 3 depicts a phase in which the mind is opening toward outside influences. In the sheltered groves and level fenland of Cambridge, Wordsworth finds an environment both protective and sufficiently strange to stimulate his sense of inner power. Chapter 3 is concerned with Wordsworth’s changing attitudes toward London. The poet was composing Book 7 over a period of time during which he made multiple trips to the city. While it is ostensibly the record of his very first residence in London, Book 7 has a palimpsestic quality, layering together different encounters with the city and exhibiting an increasingly affirmative vision of urban life. In particular, this chapter traces the influence of Charles Lamb on Wordsworth’s thinking about London. Chapter 4 considers the centrality of the body and the sense of touch in Wordsworth’s response to London. Touch in Book 7 is both a source of anxiety and the vehicle for Wordsworth’s understanding of the city, its influence on him and its significance for a poetics of belonging.</p>