Is Seeing Believing? - The Effect of Morphological Congruent Visual Feedback on Mediated Touch Experience.

Mediated social touch (MST) provides physical contact over a distance for geographically separated individuals. Despite advances in actuator technologies, it remains difficult to recreate the feel and sensation of natural human touch. Combining touch with morphologically congruent visual feedback may overcome limitations related to the low fidelity of current-day tactile displays. Being able to both feel and see the touch act being initiated on an input device could enhance the perceived realism of the touches. In two studies, we test the effects of such visual feedback on self-reported naturalness of touch, social presence, and emotional experiences.