MeTA 2013 - International Workshop on Mediated Touch and Affect (MeTA)

Mediated Touch and Affect (MeTA)
by Gijs Huisman, Nadia Bianchi-Berthouze, and Dirk Heylen
http://hmi.ewi.utwente.nl/MeTA/?page_id=10
Social touch plays a vital role in human life, as it is particularly important for the social and emotional development of infants as well as for the maintenance of social bonds in later life. Recent advances in haptic technology have spurred the development of prototypes that aim to mediate social touch. These prototypes make it possible to engage in social touch over a distance, adding a rich channel for emotional communication to existing communication channels. Such applications could be valuable in remote collaboration, long distance relationships, entertainment or gaming applications, and therapeutic
settings. The goal of this workshop is to bring together researchers from diverse communities to discuss the current state of and the future directions for research into mediated social touch.