Physical Contact of Devices: Utilization of Beats for Interpersonal Communication

In this paper, an interpersonal communication method based on tactile beats when devices are established physical contact will be proposed. Tactile beats are a well-known phenomenon that describes frequency modulation occurs when vibrating objects with similar but not same operating frequencies are physically connected. Vibrating signals at each configuration (no contact and contact with same/different frequency) were measured using a laser vibrometer. Preliminary user study revealed that the induced physical tactile stimulus was perceived well by the subjects. As an application, social touch interaction using hand-held devices with differently assigned operating vibration frequencies was described. Mapping the frequency deviation between devices to quantifiable social information, it is expected that the proposed algorithm can be applied for interpersonal communication based on physical contact with enhanced emotional and social experiences.