Building a framework for communication of emotional state through interaction with haptic devices

Abstract

Brief and high speed semantic communication, such as through texting and e-mail, leaves users without the ability to fully comprehend emotional content and vulnerable to emotional misunderstanding. The need to communicate emotional states, or to elicit sympathetic response in the receiver is evident in emotive icons and other relatively new applications of existing modes of communication. Haptic interfaces offer users a non-verbal way to communicate remotely, opening the door to a richer vocabulary and greater accessibility in emotive and affective communication. The studies described here investigate a possible framework for communication through haptic interface devices using existing models of emotional state. The semantic studies offer a look at users' naïve understanding of the emotive content of haptic sensations. Further experiments with haptic devices show that while communication through these modes can be implemented, the range of possible responses depends as much on the type of interaction used as on the users' understanding of emotive content. © 2010 Springer-Verlag.