Despite the importance of social touch to human flourishing, what we touch the most on a day-to-day basis is our smartphone. New technological developments, including mixed reality technologies, affective haptics and social robots, introduce new ways in which our sense of touch engages with digital technologies. These developments reshape what we touch, how we experience social touch, and ask us to reconsider what role touch can play in social interactions mediated by digital technologies. In this talk, I will present recent work including the development and benchmarking of novel affective haptic devices aimed at enhancing digital social interactions. This will include describing how these devices might improve embodiment and interpersonal connectedness in virtual reality as well as how these might be incorporated into Human-Robot-Interactions to foster trust and cooperation. I will focus on how we evaluate these touch tools with measures that tap into both the meaning of touch (beyond “pleasantness”) and function of touch (e.g. regulating autonomic arousal).
Merle is a cognitive neuroscientist with strong interdisciplinary ties that facilitate crosstalk with philosophers, engineers and computer scientists. She studies the interaction between sensory signals that allow us to make sense of the world around us and to successfully interact with others. Her projects range from trying to understand what makes touch special to identifying factors that make interacting in a group different to interacting in pairs. As a classical singer, she is passionate about the special cases of sensory perception in music and art. And, as a mother of five, she strongly believes in promoting women in academia.
Despite the importance of social touch to human flourishing, what we touch the most on a day-to-day basis is our smartphone. New technological developments, including mixed reality technologies, affective haptics and social robots, introduce new ways in which our sense of touch engages with digital technologies. These developments reshape what we touch, how we experience social touch, and ask us to reconsider what role touch can play in social interactions mediated by digital technologies. In this talk, I will present recent work including the development and benchmarking of novel affective haptic devices aimed at enhancing digital social interactions. This will include describing how these devices might improve embodiment and interpersonal connectedness in virtual reality as well as how these might be incorporated into Human-Robot-Interactions to foster trust and cooperation. I will focus on how we evaluate these touch tools with measures that tap into both the meaning of touch (beyond “pleasantness”) and function of touch (e.g. regulating autonomic arousal).
Merle is a cognitive neuroscientist with strong interdisciplinary ties that facilitate crosstalk with philosophers, engineers and computer scientists. She studies the interaction between sensory signals that allow us to make sense of the world around us and to successfully interact with others. Her projects range from trying to understand what makes touch special to identifying factors that make interacting in a group different to interacting in pairs. As a classical singer, she is passionate about the special cases of sensory perception in music and art. And, as a mother of five, she strongly believes in promoting women in academia.
