Expressing the Social Intent of Touch Initiator in Virtual Reality Using Multimodal Haptics

Touch is crucial in communicating different social intents in our everyday lives. However, we lack methods to bring the capability of touch to express various social signals into VR. This paper aims to bridge this gap by exploring the effectiveness of haptic feedback in conveying the social intent of a touch initiator (a user touching a virtual agent). In User Study 1, we observe the touch gestures that users employ to express different social intents and collect the haptic feedback parameters appropriate for representing these touch gestures. User Study 2 analyzes how social intent-dependent multimodal (pressure, thermal, and texture) haptic feedback affects the touch initiator’s virtual social experience. The results indicate that haptic feedback representing social intent strengthens the social expression of touch and fosters emotional closeness with virtual agents. Combining it with a physical proxy makes the effects even more effective, enhancing copresence and avatar embodiment.