Design of vibro-tactile patterns for emotional expression in online environments

Abstract

Although various technologies for physical touch exist and are used in human computer interaction, current communication devices still predominantly depend on the senses of vision and hearing. As touch is a powerful signal for emotional contents, haptic signal can contribute to overcome the limits of subtle non-verbal communications. Instant messaging is a popular platform on the internet and increasingly gets on the track in teenage life. Audio-visual functions of messenger program to share their state of mind have been received enthusiastically by many users. This indicates a realistic need for controlled experimental user studies in the design space of haptic icons. This paper proposes the outlines of designing a vibro-tactile display and vibration patterns for emotional expression in online environments and investigates the optimization of parameters to simulate emotional contents. For the purposes, we classified the emoticons (emotional icons) which were provided by Korean messenger program and redefined them as tactile icons through vibration patterns which were designed from created haptic device. Also, we derived the parameter-related formula from the mechanism of motor control. Finally, we verified the effectiveness and the possibility of the practical appliances by performing the user study.