Livia Barthol Vaz

Haptic Communication Box

The "Haptic Communication Box" is an exploration of whether haptics can provide the fundamental grounds for a playful, intuitive language of communication. The research focuses on understanding whether people are capable of effectively using haptic feedback to convey messages and emotions in cases where a relationship or friendship is long-distance. A prototype developed for this purpose includes a communication box that acts as a transmitter and a floor tile acting as the receiver. When User A sends a haptic pattern, the occurrence of the message is then signalled to User B with an LED indicator. User B will hence be able to interact with the floor tile by jumping on it, hence feeling the haptic message physically.

Haptics engages our sense of touch—a very important yet often forgotten form of communication. Through mechanoreceptors—sensory receptors in our skin—it is possible to sense and interpret a whole gamut of tactile stimuli, making touch as essential to human interaction as sight or hearing. Every day, we respond haptically without knowing the very major role that this sense plays. The project aims at using that natural ability to create a new means through which people could connect across distances more personally and with appropriate emotions.

Consider the case in which a person in a long-distance relationship or someone separated from their close friend sends a haptic message by this system, the recipient will start to feel the message physically, thus letting them know they are being thought of, hence, performing closeness and attachment, while both entities are physically separated from each other. Ultimately, this paper aims to prove the work of haptics beyond touch, providing a meaningful channel of expression for emotions and intentions, while showing that such a mode of communication is not only functional but also deeply personal and impactful.