Interpersonal haptic communication in second life

Potential of nonverbal communication as the communication medium between multiuser 3D virtual worlds and real environment are attracting the interest of many researchers around the world. Driven by the motivation, we explored the possibilities of integrating haptic interactions with Linden Lab's multiuser online virtual world, Second Life. We developed an add-on to the Second Life communication channel in order to facilitate emotional feedbacks such as human touch, encouraging pat and comforting hug to the participating users through real-world haptic simulation. These social touch that are fundamental to physical and emotional development in turn can enhance the users interactive and immersive experiences with the virtual social communities in the Second Life. In this paper, we describe the development of a prototype that realizes the aforementioned virtual-real communication through a haptic-jacket system. Some of the potential applications of the proposed approach include remote child caring, stress recovery, distant lover's communication etc.