We present EnhancedTouch, a novel bracelet-type wearable device for facilitating human-human physical touch. In particular, we aim to support children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), who often exhibit particular communication patterns, such as lack of physical touch. EnhancedTouch is a unique device that can measure human-human touch events and provide visual feedback to augment touch interaction. We employ personal area network (PAN) technology for communication with partner devices via modulated electrical current flowing through the users’ hands. Our user study shows that the visual feedback provided by the developed bracelet motivates children with ASD to touch one another. Moreover, EnhancedTouch offers a function to record the time and duration of a touch event as well as the identity of the touched person. This allows us to identify and evaluate intervention based on physical touch in a quantitative manner. (ACM CHI 2016)

Selected Papers

  1. Taku Hachisu, Gregory Reardon, Yitian Shao, Kenji Suzuki, Yon Visell:
    Interpersonal Transmission of Vibrotactile Feedback via Smart Bracelets: Mechanics and Perception,
    IEEE Transactions on Haptics, vol. x, no. x, pp. xx-xx, 2023.
  2. Kenta Ebina, Taku Hachisu:
    Interpersonal Vibrotactile Phantom Sensation between Hands via Actuated Bracelets,
    in Proceedings of IEEE World Haptics Conference (WHC) 2023, pp. 28-33, Delft, Netherlands, Jul. 10-13, 2023.
  3. Taku Hachisu, Kenji Suzuki: Interpersonal Touch Sensing Devices using Inter-Body Area Network, IEEE Sensors Journal, vol. 21, no. 24, pp. 28001-28008, 2021.
  4. Taku Hachisu, Kenji Suzuki: Representing Interpersonal Touch Directions by Tactile Apparent Motion using Smart Bracelets, IEEE Transactions on Haptics, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 327-338, 2019.
  5. Taku Hachisu, Baptiste Bourreau, Kenji Suzuki: EnhancedTouchX: Smart Bracelets for Augmenting Interpersonal Touch Interactions, in Proceedings of the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) 2019, 321, Glasgow, UK, May 4-9, 2019.
  6. Kenji Suzuki, Taku Hachisu*, Kazuki Iida: EnhancedTouch: A Smart Bracelet for Enhancing Human-Human Physical Touch, in Proceedings of the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) 2016, pp. 1282-1293, San Jose, CA, USA, May 7-12, 2016. [*co-first authors]

Videos

  • IEEE ToH 2023

  • IEEE WHC 2023

  • ACM CHI 2019
    • Short version

    • Long version

  • AsiaHaptics 2018
    • Short version

    • Long version

  • ACM CHI 2016
    • Short version

    • Long version

EnhancedTouch App

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EnhancedTouch (device) is required.