Demonstrating TactorBots: A Haptic Design Toolkit for Exploration of Emotional Robotic Touch Show others and affiliations
2023 (English) In: Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI EA 2023, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) , 2023Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]
Emerging research has demonstrated the viability of emotional communication through haptic technology inspired by interpersonal touch. However, the meaning-making of artificial touch remains ambiguous and contextual. We see this ambiguity caused by robotic touch's "otherness" as an opportunity for exploring alternatives. To empower designers to explore emotional robotic touch, we devise TactorBots. It contains eight plug-and-play wearable tactor modules that render a series of social gestures driven by servo motors. Our specialized web GUI allows easy control, modification, and storage of tactile patterns to support fast prototyping. Taking emotional haptics as a "design canvas" with broad opportunities, TactorBots is the first "playground" for designers to try out various tactile sensations, feel around the nuanced connection between touches and emotions, and come up with creative imaginations.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) , 2023.
Keywords [en]
Haptic Design Toolkit, Wearable, Emotional Robotic Touch, Design Research, Creativity Support
National Category
Human Computer Interaction
Research subject Human-computer Interaction
Identifiers URN: urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-365766 DOI: 10.1145/3544549.3583897 Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85158127124 OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kth-365766 DiVA, id: diva2:1978951
Conference The 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI EA 2023, Hamburg, Germany, Apr 23-28, 2023
Note QC 20250701
2025-06-292025-06-292025-07-01 Bibliographically approved