Interpersonal Vibrotactile Phantom Sensation between Hands via Actuated Bracelets.

Multiplayer video games are interactive electronic systems that mainly consist of controllers and monitors, in which two or more players engage in social interactions by competing or cooperating with one another. The use of interpersonal touch interaction as a controller can provide an opportunity to offer social behavior with minimal social distance and facilitate prosocial behavior. In this study, an experiment was conducted to demonstrate interpersonal vibrotactile phantom sensations between two parties holding hands via actuated bracelets. We adopted hands as the medium for vibration propagation and the illusory tactile sensation (phantom sensation) to localize the sensation. The amplitude ratio, vibration frequency, and actuator position were employed as explanatory variables, whereas the perceived location was used as the response variable. The results reveal that the perceived locations varied linearly according to the amplitude ratio, which demonstrates the effect of the interpersonal phantom sensation. Furthermore, the frequency of the vibration affected the linearity between the amplitude ratio and perceived location, whereas the actuator position had no effect. Thus, the use of the phantom sensation may be a promising approach for enhanced interpersonal touch interactions and improved immersion of game players.