Organizing Knowledge on Nonverbal Communication Mediated Through Haptic Technology

Abstract

Nonverbal communication (NVC) can benefit from any human sense. The sense of touch, or haptic sense, is often used as a channel of NVC. This paper organizes existing knowledge on the use of technology to communicate nonverbally through the haptic sense (HNVC). The analysis of reported work and ongoing projects in the area during the last five years has resulted in an initial taxonomy that is based on three major dimensions, based upon the intent of the messages exchanged: interpretive, affective, and active communication. Thus, haptic devices are used to convey meaning in interpretive HNVC, to convey or to generate emotional reactions in affective HNVC, or to request specific actions or tasks in active HNVC. We characterize existing work using these major categories and various subcategories. This initial organization provides a general overview of all the areas that benefit from technology as a NVC channel. Analysis shows that using the haptic sense as a communication means still has many open research areas and potential new applications, and has proven to date to be an effective mechanism to communicate most of what humans would want to: messages, emotions, and actions.