Ultrasound mid-air haptic (UMH) devices are a novel tool for haptic feedback, capable of providing localized vibrotactile stimuli to users at a distance. UMH applications largely rely on generating tactile shape outlines on the users' skin. Here we investigate how to achieve sensations of continuity or gaps within such two-dimensional curves by studying the perception of pairs of amplitude-modulated focused ultrasound stimuli. On the one hand, we aim to investigate perceptual effects that may arise from providing simultaneous UMH stimuli. On the other hand, we wish to provide perception-based rendering guidelines for generating continuous or discontinuous sensations of tactile shapes. Finally, we hope to contribute toward a measure of the perceptually achievable resolution of UMH interfaces. We performed a user study to identify how far apart two focal points need to be to elicit a perceptual experience of two distinct stimuli separated by a gap. Mean gap detection thresholds were found at 32.3-mm spacing between focal points, but a high within- and between-subject variability was observed. Pairs spaced below 15 mm were consistently (>95%) perceived as a single stimulus, while pairs spaced 45 mm apart were consistently (84%) perceived as two separate stimuli. To investigate the observed variability, we resort to acoustic simulations of the resulting pressure fields. These show a non-linear evolution of actual peak pressure spacing as a function of nominal focal point spacing. Beyond an initial threshold in spacing (between 15 and 18 mm), which we believe to be related to the perceived size of a focal point, the probability of detecting a gap between focal points appears to linearly increase with spacing. Our work highlights physical interactions and perceptual effects to consider when designing or investigating the perception of UMH shapes.

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The social and sensory aspects of touch are critical for human communication, yet the challenges of haptic technology development and a focus on the technological means that digital touch communication often fails to realise the potential and promise of touch. The Manifesto for Digital Social Touch in Crisis responds to this through a call to action to rethink and reimagine digital touch. It offers 10 provocative statements as a resource for how haptic designers, developers and researchers might rethink and reimagine the social and sensory aspects of touch, and foreground these more in design.@en

This qualitative exploratory research paper presents a Manifesto for Digital Social Touch in Crisis - a provocative call to action to designers, developers and researchers to rethink and reimagine social touch through a deeper engagement with the social and sensory aspects of touch. This call is motivated by concerns that social touch is in a crisis signaled by a decline in social touch over the past 2 decades, the problematics of inappropriate social touch, and the well documented impact of a lack of social touch on communication, relationships, and well-being and health. These concerns shape how social touch enters the digital realm and raise questions for how and when the complex space of social touch is mediated by technologies, as well the societal implications. The paper situates the manifesto in the key challenges facing haptic designers and developers identified through a series of interdisciplinary collaborative workshops with participants from computer science, design, engineering, HCI and social science from both within industry and academia, and the research literature on haptics. The features and purpose of the manifesto form are described, along with our rationale for its use, and the method of the manifesto development. The starting points, opportunities and challenges, dominant themes and tensions that shaped the manifesto statements are then elaborated on. The paper shows the potential of the manifesto form to bridge between HCI, computer science and engineers, and social scientists on the topic of social touch.

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