Tactile Animal Breathing Motion Reproducer with Animal Video Viewing Device That Gives Lifelike Sensation of Touching Real Animals

Animal-mimicking robots are widely used as tools for therapy and aid in getting mental relaxation. However, precisely mimicking animal may cause discomfort, such as the uncanny valley effect. Therefore, the minimum factors of animals that can be mimicked by robotic devices and give a lifelike feeling of touching real animals should be clarified. We hypothesized that touching on a device that mimics the breathing of animals and showing a video of a live animal gives a feeling of touching live real animals and provides relaxation to the user. To prove this, we made a simple device mimicking animal breathing. We conducted a controlled experiment with 36 participants over 15 minutes using the device. We showed an animal video and asked participants to touch the breath-mimicking device. We measured subjects' moods using the Temporary Mood Scale and lifelikeness using the Godspeed scale. As a result, we found that the simultaneous experience of watching the animal video and touching a breathing device gives a better lifelike sensation of touching real animals than the cases of either experience. We also found that these positive feelings are given whether the person had animal-keeping experience or not.