Emotional expression by a person's grip on a tactual communication tool

Abstract

Tactual communication between people familiar to each other can express various emotions. But a social distance exists between unfamiliar people. The purpose of this study is the development of a tactual communication tool that conveys emotional communication during an oral conversation. In the present study, a tactual communication tool was examined, and the features of emotional expression by a person's grip on the tool were analyzed. Ten subjects expressed six emotions by their grip. As a result, surprise and joy were expressed by one grip pattern, and anger and sadness by two grip patterns. Disgust and fear were expressed by different grip patterns. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.